Luxgen: Taiwan, Too

The world’s automotive stage has gained another visible player as Luxgen, said to be the first automobile brand from Taiwan, has announced its plans to focus on markets in the Middle East, Central America, Russia, China, and southeast Asia. In other words, in places where the automotive market is growing.

What’s more, the brand is positioning itself somewhat differently than most automotive manufacturers, with a branding message of “IT + AUTO + ET.” The middle term, of course, is clear. The “IT” is as in “information technology,” as the vehicles in the Luxgen lineup feature a computer system called “Think+” that was developed with Taiwanese mobile phone provider HTC, and which has a Windows CE Automotive interface. The “ET” is not that cuddly-but-wrinkled space alien, but “environmental technology.”

Evidently, Luxgen, which was established in 2008 by the Yulon Group (imagine: a bona fide 21^st century automobile company), is hitting all of the contemporary hot buttons. And while Luxgen is a comparatively new company, Yulon has been around since 1949, and while it counts textile manufacturing, IT and high-tech R&D and manufacturing, real estate development, financial services and investments, and publishing among its businesses, it also builds cars from plants it has in Taiwan, mainland China, and the Philippines, building vehicles along with Nissan, Mitsubishi, GM, Mercedes, and other companies.

In other words, this isn’t a company with no experience in the domain that has come to bring in high tech vehicles.

Although they’ve picked a limited market space, it is a lucrative one.

This is a clever approach: Note how they’re calling out the various suppliers that they’re using and other companies that use those suppliers. So while their brand may not be familiar, those names certainly are. Adds some street cred to the vehicle.