EP 17: John Stech: A visit to Taiwan sparks contemplation of national pride in the automotive industry

This week John Stech, host of The Auto Ethnographer, was traveling in Taiwan. He was there to see his wife’s nephew graduate from high school. The five days on the ground were very busy, a packed schedule planned in advance. While there he was inspired to think about the pride that nations and their people feel about locally developed and produced automotive brands.The visit started and ended in Taipei but much of the time was spent further south in the towns of Nantou, Puli, and Taichung, as well as at the stunningly beautiful Sun Moon Lake area in the Taiwanese mountains.Urban and intercity transportation was primarily on rail, either the underground MRT or the incredibly fast HSR system (high speed rail). But the Nantou County was more spread out and required rented cars for the extended family. One of those cars was a LUXGEN n7 EV, a vehicle locally developed and produced by Yulon Motors with development cooperation by Foxtron (a part of FoxConn, known for producing Apple iPhones).It became clear that the family member renting the LUXGEN was proud of the local brand. Well built, stylish, reliable, and packed with technology and a great battery range, the vehicle was certainly worthy of admiration.John Stech speaks about LUXGEN, the perceived pride in the local automotive player, and the comparative experiences he had with local brands in Vietnam and Russia.Join in for a short but thoughtful episode on the impact of national pride on a nation’s auto industry.For more information about LUXGEN, visit the company’s site here (Mandarin Chinese): https://www.luxgen-motor.com.tw/Learn more about Sun Moon Lake at their homepage: https://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/en/To learn more about The Auto Ethnographer, visit the homepage at https://www.auto-ethnographer.com