Taiwan's first self-developed commercial electric smart vehicle made its media debut Tuesday, with economic officials saying the aim is to complete all related tests and make the vehicle road-ready by the second quarter of 2011. Deputy Economics Minister Hwang Jung-chiou said that commercial vehicles play a vital role in every industry but cost a lot in terms of fuel, which demonstrates the potential for commercial electric vehicles. The sales volume of commercial vehicles in Taiwan is around 20,000 per year, of which more than 5,000 are part of company fleets, Hwang said at a press conference to introduce the vehicle. Wu Ming-chi, director-general of the Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said that if those 5,000 commercial vehicles used electricity instead of gasoline or diesel, savings of up to 6,050 kiloliters of fuel could be created, as well as a reduction of 13,320 tons of carbon emissions. The electric vehicle, developed mainly by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) , can run for 80 km on a 30-minute charge, said Chang Nien-tzu, a deputy chief at the institute's smart vehicle technology section. With subsidies and commodity tax breaks provided by the government, it is estimated that a company that purchases a fleet of 100 of the electric vehicles would break even on the purchase price in less than five years, according to the ITRI. 