Status: 01.10.2021 2:04 p.m.
Foxconn, the Taiwanese company known primarily as a contract manufacturer for Apple, is entering the auto business. To do this, he took over a factory in the USA.
The Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn is taking advantage of the troubles of the electric car developer Lordstown Motors to buy up its plant in the US state of Ohio. According to the company, the price is $ 230 million. A final deal has yet to be negotiated.
A new contract manufacturer for the auto industry
In January, Foxconn had already got on the struggling electric car developer Byton to support him in the production start of the first M-Byte model, which is planned for early 2022. Foxconn, previously known primarily as a manufacturer of Apple devices, is increasingly developing as a contract manufacturer for the automotive industry. The group has already developed its own vehicle platform and recently secured the electric car developer Fisker as its first customer for contract manufacturing.
With the purchase of the US plant, the joint vehicle could go into production faster, wrote founder Henrik Fisker on Twitter. Together with Foxconn, Fisker wants to develop a new model that should come onto the market in 2023. More than 250,000 vehicles are to be built each year. Fisker builds its first model, Ocean, with the experienced Austrian contract manufacturer Magna.
Lordstown was under pressure
As part of the deal with Lordstown, Foxconn will also manufacture the company’s vehicles at the purchased facility, including the first model, the Endurance pickup. Pickups are the most lucrative vehicles in the US auto market, and established manufacturers are competing with young companies to convert the category to electric drives.
Lordstown Motors is struggling, however, and warned investors in the summer that the company’s survival was not assured. Lordstown bought the factory two years ago for $ 20 million from General Motors. The auto giant was under pressure from then US President Donald Trump and was looking for a buyer for the already closed plant.
Joint venture with Stellantis
According to the Nikkei Asia newspaper, Foxconn is also considering building car factories in Europe. Talks are already being held about possible locations. In Thailand, according to the report, Foxconn plans to produce 150,000 to 200,000 electric vehicles annually for the Southeast Asian market together with the Thai gas and mineral oil company PTT.
In Europe, Foxconn founded a joint venture with Opel parent Stellantis in May. The joint venture will manufacture the cockpits of all Stellantis brands from Peugeot to Maserati. Again and again there are reports about the ambitions of the most important Foxconn customer, Apple, to bring their own electric car onto the market. The Taiwanese are just about to acquire the necessary know-how.