So confident is Fukuta of the electric vehicle market that it is spending US$10m on a new factory capable of producing 1000 motors per day. “We have bought the land and we are preparing to build,” said Karen Ho, international marketing manager. “It is near Taichung and will be ready by the end of 2010.”

The company was founded in 1988 and until recently has concentred on electric motors for more traditional, non-automotive applications. That changed two years ago when it was invited to produce a motor for US company Tesla’s high-performance electric vehicle.

“We now have 1000 cars on the road using our motor,” said Ho. “They started selling in Europe in July and in 2010 they will start selling in Asia.”

As the car drops in price, she predicted that sales would increase.

“The buyers are all famous people now,” she said, “but they will start to increase sales in the next year, so we have to have the new factory ready for that. We are getting ready also for Tesla’s second car. This will be popular for all passengers.”

A potentially bigger market for the company comes from Taiwanese car maker Luxgen Motors, which launched its first car late year – an MPV that can hold seven passengers – and is working with Fukuta on future designs.

“They have ten cars using our motor for testing,” said Ho, “and they are aiming to launch a car in July 2010 using our motor.”