Foxconn Will Not Sell Electric Cars by Itself: It Only Aims to Build Them

That changes everything: Foxtron ceases to be a potential new automaker to become just a fictitious brand to introduce the cars Hon Hai wants to manufacture for its customers. Foxconn only intends to apply its build, operate, localize (BOL) motto to the automotive industry based on its MIH Open Platform. It will not be a competitor.

If you think about it, that makes perfect sense. Micro-Mobility presented us with a recent case of what can happen if the company making the vehicles also decides to sell them. The Swiss bubble car maker had a deal with Tecno Meccanica Imola (TMI) to make the first Microlino, but Artega bought the Italian manufacturing contractor. Soon after purchasing TMI, Artega said it would make a competitor to the Microlino in the same assembly lines based on Microlino’s project. It was supposed to be called Karolino.

Micro-Mobility did not accept that and sued Artega. In the end, they made a deal that released Micro-Mobility to find another manufacturing contractor, and Artega kept the first design of the bubble car. Artega eventually went bankrupt, was bought by Electricbrands, and the Microlino 1.0 became the Evetta. Micro-Mobility developed a much better vehicle which is now known as Microlino 2.0.

That situation shows a manufacturing contractor needs to be dependable. To achieve that, it must not become a threat to its customers. Liu made sure to reinforce that was the case with Hon Hai. What we still do not get is why it hired Pininfarina to develop some of its cars. The customers should support that sort of expense. The way Pininfarina and Foxconn framed it, it seems that the Taiwanese titan was the one who ordered the Model E and the Model B.

In his presentation, Hon Hai’s CEO said the MIH Open Platform helped to cut design time in half and reduce development costs by a third. If the Taiwanese company offers vehicles ready for production to its clients, design and development will only cost a refund to the expenses Foxconn already had with these steps in a car project.

Pininfarina did not design the Model C. That said, it must have been developed by Yulon, who will now sell it under the Luxgen brand. Presenting it as a Foxtron was just a way for Foxconn to test how customers would react to it before Yulon revealed it would sell the electric SUV. The car now has 460 hp, goes from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.8 seconds, and Foxconn said it is close to the NEDC range of 700 kilometers (435 miles). To be precise, Liu said Foxconn is at 96% of that target.

When Luxgen presented it as the n7, 15,000 reservations were made in 32 hours. The CEO celebrated that as if Foxconn had sold them itself. In a way, it will indirectly sell them as the manufacturing contractor, but the deal is that Yulon is Hon Hai’s automotive expert. If it will build and sell the n7 as a Luxgen, it makes us wonder what Foxconn’s role in its production is. It may have to do with semiconductors and crucial electric components the former Model C needs.

After presenting the electric SUV, the Model B, and Model V, Liu added that all three would be made in Taiwan, Thailand, and the U.S. Hon Hai is now negotiating to produce them in Indonesia and India as well.

In its American factory alone, Liu said Hon Hai has four customers so far. We know three of them: Lordstown Motors, Fisker, and Monarch Tractor. INDIEV said Foxconn would build its INDI One prototypes but has not confirmed a manufacturing contract. That leaves the fourth client as something yet to be disclosed. Would it be Luxgen or INDIEV? We should learn about that in a few months.