Foxconn’s venture attempting to build a standardised electric vehicle platform is targeting India or Thailand for the production of a small battery-power car under development, the unit’s chief executive said.
The Taiwanese company’s EV platform unit Mobility in Harmony (MIH) would be willing to work with its parent or another company to build the new three-seat EV price below $20,000 (approx. Rs. 16,00,000) and tailor-made for a corporate delivery fleet, said MIH CEO Jack Cheng.
MIH has in talks with convenience stores, car rental companies and courier companies ahead of unveiling its first prototype EV at Japan’s largest auto trade show in October, Jack Cheng said.
Jack Cheng decline to name the companies in talks with MIH, but said the car would be priced between $10,000 (approx. Rs. 8,00,000) and $20,000.
India and Thailand are likely contenders for production sites, Jack Cheng said, adding that he expect India to be crucial to MIH’s longer-term growth.
Jack Cheng said :
“You build where the potential market is…In India or Southeast Asia, you have a huge volume opportunity right now,”
Jack Cheng calling India a potential “emerging power for the next generation” in the EV sector.
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MIH had not previously describe its manufacturing strategy or the potential customers for its new vehicle.
Since 2021, Foxconn has had a joint venture with Thailand’s state-energy company PTT centred on EVs, an area of focus for the Southeast Asian country’s government.
Foxconn has so far fail to land the kind of deal that would show the EV market can be open to the type of contract manufacturing that Foxconn came to dominate in consumer electronics for Apple’s iPhone.
Foxconn establish the MIH consortium of some 2,600 suppliers two years ago with the aim of creating an open platform that could become the equivalent of Google’s Android operating system for EVs.
Jack Cheng conceded MIH had “not seen success yet” but said returns for participating suppliers would come with orders for a range of new EVs called Project X.
The idea is to use low-cost, share platforms to allow corporate fleet operators to order custom-made EVs.
So far, that model is largely untest, and analysts have said the best opportunity for a new EV entrant like Foxconn could close in the next few years as establish automakers and startups ramp up their own production.
MIH plans to start production of the three-seat EV about 18 to 24 months after the prototype is unveiled in October, Jack Cheng said.
A six-seat EV is schedule to follow in 2024 and a nine-seat model in 2025.
Based on its timeline, it would take MIH four years or more from its founding to first sales in a best case scenario.
But Jack Cheng, who was a co-founder of Chinese EV maker NIO and headed Fiat’s joint venture in China before joining Foxconn, said Tesla’s success with its large Shanghai plant show how quickly an EV maker could scale up.
Jack Cheng said :
“I’m building another Shanghai, probably in India,”.
“If this is a Foxconn plant, fantastic, it’s the mother company, we put it into the Foxconn plant. If this is a local India plant and it’s even more competitive, give it to the India plant.”
Foxconn, which only produces a small number of EVs at present, has set an initial target of gaining a 5% share of the global market by 2025.
MIH’s sales will count towards Foxconn’s target, Jack Cheng said.
