New venture to build solar-powered sunroofs for cars

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on September 6, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's E-Ton Group, Yulon Group and Acer Group have recently agreed to set up a joint venture to develop solar-power auto-parts.

The E-Ton Group is a major auto-parts and all terrain vehicle (ATV) manufacturing conglomerate in Taiwan. Its solar-panel production arm is E-ton Solar Tech Col, Ltd. Meanwhile, the Yulon Group is currently the largest automobile-production conglomerate in Taiwan. The Acer Group is the leading personal computer (PC) brand in Taiwan.

The new joint venture will be the Gloria Solar Co., Ltd., which will develop and make automotive solar-powered sunroofs. The company's initial products will target the aftermarket and then original equipment (OE) sales to automakers.

According to industry insiders, solar-powered sunroofs are only seen on a few luxury models of cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen. The solar-powered panel maintains the power supply to a fan when the car is parked and therefore keeps the interior cool in hot weather, as well as powering an electrically actuated wind deflector.

The solar-powered sunroofs will be produced at E-Ton's existing plant and the first batch will be launched in the first quarter of 2007. In the near future, solar-powered sunroofs are expected to broaden solar-powered applications and add value to new cars.