Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer wasn’t happy. Ford Motor, a company whose very name is synonymous with Detroit, had just announced it had chosen two southern states, Tennessee and Kentucky, as sites for a US$11 billion electric vehicle (EV) project.

Taiwanese businesses must step up efforts to deepen their industry ecosystems, reposition their roles in supply chains and refocus their business operations, so as to meet challenges and cushion impacts from volatile global political and economic conditions in the post-pandemic era, particularly intensifying trade and tech wars between the US and China, according Chaney Ho, a member of board of directors at IPC maker Advantech.

General Motors plans to compete with Tesla’s solar and Powerwall business by offering its own sun-generated power and storage system starting late next year.