The Hon Hai Tech Day (HHTD) is celebrated on October 18 every year: it is Terry Guo’s birthday. The company’s founder always says that new vehicles are his best birthday gift, which was no different with HHTD22. One of the vehicles presented at the event was the Model B, which we had already shown on October 7. This is all we know about it.
The first and most crucial piece of data is that this compact crossover will not be called Foxtron Model B when it goes on sale. Hon Hai’s CEO, Young Liu, said the company “is not in the business of selling its own EV brand.” In other words, Foxtron is just a fictitious car brand to present the projects with which Foxconn is involved. We are yet to understand why it apparently hired Pininfarina to develop the Model B.
Foxconn’s compact electric crossover is 4.30 meters (169.3 in) long, 1.87 m (73.6 in) wide, 1.53 m (60.2 in) tall, and has a wheelbase of 2.80 m (110.2 in). It shares the same MIH Open Platform that underpins the former Model C, a car that will go on sale exclusively as the Luxgen n7. The Model B wheelbase lacks 6 cm (2.4 in) compared to the n7’s, but the EV is 34 cm (13.4 in) shorter overall.
Photo: Hon Hai
Hon Hai did not disclose how big the Model B’s battery pack is. It only said it would give it a 450-kilometer (280-mile) NEDC range. If you compare that to Luxgen n7’s target range of 700 km (435 mi), it is pretty clear that the compact crossover has the mission of costing significantly less than the Luxgen n7.
Although it has a very similar wheelbase, which could probably house the same battery pack, it presents one that is at least 35.7% smaller. Hon Hai showed us how small it is while introducing the Model B. Weighing less, it could be even smaller and still get a 450 km range, especially with the good aerodynamic drag numbers it achieved: 0.26, slightly lower than that of the Volkswagen ID.3 (0.267).
Photo: Hon Hai
The Model B is also much slower. While the Luxgen n7 goes from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.8 seconds, the compact electric crossover does the same in 6.6 s. It is worth remembering that the Model B is lighter than the n7, which should make it faster if it had the same motor.
The last thing Hon Hai praised about the Model B was that it has an innovative new electronic architecture called Electrical/Electronic Architecture (EEA). Included in all MIH Open Platform vehicles, Foxconn claims it reduces the length of wiring harnesses by 40% and also the number of electronic modules in a car. The Taiwanese company stated that the EEA has a centralized architecture that concentrates ten ECUs in only one.
Photo: Hon Hai
As you may imagine, this is something most automakers would be delighted to have, and we believe Stellantis became Foxconn’s first customer for that. In December 2021, the automaker announced the STLA Brain, a new “electrical/electronic and software architecture” that will launch in all the company’s platforms starting in 2024. Foxconn developed four new families of chips to “reduce complexity, and simplify the supply chain.” Is there a better way to achieve that than replacing ten ECUs with a single one?
If you take a good look at the Model B, you’ll see it is more of a concept than a production EV. It lacks headlights, for example. Its production version should solve that, as well as the final name and badge that this compact electric crossover will present to customers. The Model E may help us discover which brand wanted Pininfarina’s help. It is undoubtedly the one that paid for the famed design house assistance, probably both for the Model E and Model B.
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