More than a year ago, Foxconn founder Terming Gou said, "Apple car is just four-wheel iPhone. Since we can build iPhone, why can't we build electric cars?" Now it seems that Terry Gou's statement is true. Foxconn recently revealed the official photos of Model B. The new car is expected to be officially unveiled on the annual Technology Day on the 18th. It is likely to become Foxconn's first mass-produced car. Let's take a sneak peek.
Foxconn's technical reserves should not be underestimated
Many friends who don't know about Foxconn's car manufacturing may not know it yet. As early as October last year, Foxconn released three models, namely pure electric sedan Model E, pure electric SUV Model C and electric bus Model T. Model E is jointly designed by Honghua Advanced and automotive design company Pininfarina (Pininfarina), with a resistance coefficient of 0.22Cd, accelerates by 100 times for 2.8 seconds, and a range of 750km.
Model C also has pure electric battery life of more than 700 kilometers and a performance of over 100 seconds in 3.8 seconds, and the pre-sale price is only about NT$1 million (about NT$230,000). Model T is a smart city transportation bus with a range of more than 400KM. Its maximum climbing capacity can reach 25 degrees under full load conditions and a maximum speed of 120km/h. These data are enough to prove that Foxconn's technical reserves in the electric vehicle field are at the global front-line level.
Model B How is this car
Foxconn's car manufacturing, to some extent, it cannot be considered as a new force car manufacturing, because it is the world's largest electronics industry foundry and has strong manufacturing experience. As for whether these experiences can be transformed into more complex automobile manufacturing, we will wait and see. Today we will focus on how the latest Model B performs. In terms of
design, the through-type headlight is the most "Volkswagen" design of new energy vehicles. This light strip of Model B seems to be relatively high in width and completeness, and the overall texture is pretty good. High and low beam lights should be arranged under the light strip, and the extra dotted LED lights on the front grille may give them a certain dynamic light speech function, and even piece together some simple information. The overall sense of technology is relatively sufficient. There is some controversy in the design of the car side of
, because it is indeed somewhat similar to Volkswagen ID.3, especially the area behind the C-pillar, which is exactly the same as ID.3. The obvious difference is that Model B adopts a hidden door handle design, which will have a stronger sense of technology and overall feeling. In addition, both cars adopt a very extreme short front and short rear overhang design, so although the body looks short, referring to ID.3, the actual space performance should not be too big.
The rear of the new car adopts the same through-type light strip design as the headlight, which echoes the front and rear. A small highlight is that there is an area similar to pedestrian indicator lights below both sides of the taillight. It is expected that mass-produced vehicles may provide a variety of different lights to further improve driving convenience.
Foxconn Model B is built on the MIH platform and is the same as Model C and Model E. Although the power has not been announced yet, the range has reached 500km, exceeding ID.3. At the same time, the advanced technologies of the MIH platform should be used on Model B, but considering the entry-level positioning of Model B, its responsibilities should find the balance between price and product strength, making it a Foxconn-based model.
What is the prospect of Foxconn's car manufacturing
As mentioned above, although Foxconn is a latecomer in the field of car manufacturing, it should never be simply classified as a new force in car manufacturing. It has many years of experience in the production of first-tier electronic products in the world, and this kind of manufacturing experience is obviously not available to most "new forces" brands.
Secondly, the MIH pure electric vehicle platform itself has the first-class technology for the current electric vehicle manufacturing. According to the published data, the power unit and battery life are also in the first echelon. The brand new Model B is also planned to be put into production at the Lordstown Motors factory in Ohio, USA in 2024, but this is not the fastest, because Foxconn also plans to open a production line in China in 2023.If the plan is implemented smoothly, Foxconn will have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles. Compared with the annual production and sales of about 100,000 vehicles by new front-line forces, it is obviously not the same magnitude.
"Cheyiquan" view: Foxconn has been recognized by everyone for a long time as the Apple OEM factory, but in fact, even if it is an OEM for the world's highest-capital technology company, it can only make hard money. It is different to transform into car manufacturing. In the international market, a big new energy trend, we can integrate our rich manufacturing experience with advanced technology, produce products with competitive product strength and price, and take the high-value part of the industrial chain into our own hands to "make money by standing up." Let us look forward to the arrival of Foxconn's electric cars soon!
