Status: October 18, 2021 3:14 p.m.
The market for e-cars is booming. Now another company is getting involved: the electronics giant Foxconn wants to conquer the market with three of its own models.
Foxconn actually manufactures smartphones, including the iPhones for Apple. The Taiwanese company has now announced that it will also produce electric cars in the future. The cars are to be manufactured for companies in China, North America, Europe and other markets, said the head of the Taiwanese company, Young Liu.
The group presented three vehicles with electric motors at the company headquarters today: a sedan, a sporty off-road vehicle (SUV) and a bus. The sedan, which was developed together with the Italian design office Pininfarina, should come onto the market in 2023, the company announced. The cars should score especially in terms of range: the sedan should travel 750 kilometers on one charge, the electric bus should have a range of slightly less than 400 kilometers. Foxconn said it invested around ten billion Taiwan dollars in the development of electric cars in 2020 alone.
Adapted to customer requirements
Customers could customize the look and characteristics of the vehicles, the company said. The Taiwan News newspaper reported last week that Stellantis, the automaker that emerged from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, is one of its potential customers. However, Liu did not confirm this today.
The company wants to produce the cars for customers such as the car manufacturer Fisker and the Taiwanese group Yulong. Together with Fisker, Foxconn recently announced that it would develop cars together. Production of the vehicles is then scheduled to begin at the end of 2023. There has also been speculation about a collaboration with Apple for a long time, now the rumors are getting louder again.
Foxconn buys into car factories
Foxconn is, among other things, the world’s largest supplier to manufacturers of smartphones such as Apple. Foxconn founded a joint venture with the Taiwanese manufacturer Yulon Motor to produce electric cars and recently bought a car plant in the US state of Ohio from the US startup Lordstown Motors for $ 230 million. Previously, the Taiwanese group had already got involved with the struggling electric car developer Byton to support it with the start of production of the first M-Byte model, which is targeted for early 2022.