Foxconn goes to Ohio to make cars
Business & Technology
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Apple’s favored manufacturer is buying an Ohio car factory once owned by GM in a $230 million deal. For Foxconn and the seller, American EV maker Lordstown Motors, it’s a win-win:
- Lordstown, which has overpromised and underdelivered on its Endurance electric pickup truck, will get help scaling production with Foxconn as a new partner.
- Foxconn, which has never built cars, gets free reign to build expertise and work with additional partners in the huge factory.
The context: With smartphone innovation slowing, Foxconn is pivoting. Its chairman wants the company’s designs, components, and software in 5% of all electric vehicles by 2025, and to make that happen, it’s acquiring or developing semiconductors, self-driving software, motors, and better batteries.
- Its centerpiece is an open-source platform to standardize EV hardware and software, making it faster and easier for other brands to develop new cars, à la Google’s Android software.
- Foxconn is planning factories in Thailand by 2022, in addition to the U.S., with production to begin the following year. Europe is another potential location.
The kicker: What it really wants is the iCar. Many observers believe Foxconn is readying itself to build what founder Terry Gou has called an “iPhone with four wheels.”
