As the initial results of trade negotiations between Taiwan and the US emerged in early 2026, a long-standing cloud over Taiwan's industrial sector appeared, at least briefly, to lift. The two sides agreed to set reciprocal tariffs at 15%, without stacking them on top of existing most-favored-nation rates, and Taiwan secured a key exemption under Section 232 of US trade law, which covers national security-related tariffs.
In 2025, Tesla's EV market share declined as Volkswagen's BEV sales surged in Europe, while Xiaomi aggressively expanded in China, challenging Tesla's position in that market. Tesla's global deliveries fell by 8.6%, ceding the top spot to BYD.
The EU's potential reversal of the 2035 ban on new gasoline and diesel vehicles is forcing European automakers to reconsider engine R&D. However, stringent emissions rules and growing Chinese technological capabilities complicate their ability to regain global competitiveness, according to Nikkei Automotive.
South Korean materials company Solum Advanced Materials has created a 10-micron ultrathin stainless steel foil using its proprietary Equi-Speed Asymmetric Rolling (ESAR) technology. The foil is intended as an anode current collector in all-solid-state batteries and is undergoing sample evaluations with global battery and automotive manufacturers.
TYC Brother Industrial, with 40 years of global experience in the automotive supply chain, is expanding its manufacturing operations to the US, signaling a strategic shift amid evolving industry dynamics. Chuang Tai-Shie, a member of the company's board of directors, emphasized that this move reflects broader trends reshaping global manufacturing and supply chains.
The global market for robotaxis is set to move decisively from long-held promise to commercial reality in 2026, as autonomous driving shifts from experimental pilots to an increasingly competitive business.
Huawei plans a sweeping expansion of its presence in China's smart car industry in 2026, betting that advanced driver-assistance software, in-car operating systems, and digital chassis technologies can become a new pillar of growth as US sanctions continue to constrain its core telecommunications business.
As the global automotive market shows signs of recovery in 2026, Excellence Opto has completed a corporate restructuring and opened a new factory in Mexico, positioning the company to launch new products and showcase the impact of its AI-powered automotive electronics transformation. In tandem, Excellence Opto has issued 7,000 secured convertible bonds totaling NT$739 million (approx. US$23.3 million), now listed on the local exchange.
As trends in autonomous driving and edge computing continue to evolve, oToBrite Electronics is upgrading its core competitiveness from automotive sensing hardware to full-domain visual AI solutions. Through a product lineup of automotive-grade camera modules ranging from 1 to 8MP, oToBrite is not only strengthening its position in the commercial and passenger vehicle markets but also crossing over into the unmanned vehicle and robotics sectors, building a multi-dimensional sensing moat.
Nvidia unveiled its Alpamayo family at CES 2026, introducing a suite that includes the open-source AI model Alpamayo 1, the AlpaSim simulation framework, and Physical AI Open Datasets. Alpamayo 1 centers on chain-of-thought reasoning and vision-language-action (VLA) inference models designed for autonomous driving applications.
As Taiwan and the US reached a consensus in their tariff negotiations, a long-standing cloud hanging over Taiwan's automotive aftermarket industry began to lift. Securing the most favorable treatment under Section 232—capping tariffs at 15%—was not only a trade victory but a psychological turning point for Taiwan's vehicle-parts supply chain. The agreement has injected new confidence into the sector, allowing manufacturers to shift from a posture of defensive caution to one of proactive expansion.
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