"The manufactured Hon Hai is transformed into the Hon Hai of technology." On the Hon Hai Technology Day on October 18, Hon Hai Group founder and chairman Hon Hai Group debuted in the Model B, and he said so at the scene.
This Model B is one of the protagonists today, and the same ones are also unveiled in the mass production version of Model C and another new model, Model V.
Among them, Model C was unveiled on Hon Hai Technology Day last year and is positioned as a pure electric SUV model. It is the first passenger car under Foxconn to launch a mass-produced version, and the price will be less than 1 million NT$ (about 230,000 yuan). Compared with the prototype car, the horsepower of Model C increased from 400 horsepower to 460 horsepower on the mass-produced version, and the acceleration from 000 kilometers to 3.8 seconds, and the range of the cruising version reached 700 kilometers.
According to reports, Model C has opened reservations through the Nazhijie brand in September, with orders of more than 15,000 vehicles within 32 hours.
The newly unveiled Model B is an hatchback , with a range of 450 kilometers, accelerating by 6.6 seconds in 000 times, and the automatic driving assistance function supports OTA upgrade. Another new model, Model V, is an electric pickup truck with a load of 1T, a drag 3T, and a range of 420 kilometers.
or above three models will be gradually put into production in factories in Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. At the same time, Foxconn mentioned that in addition to the three-electric system, it will also provide vertical integration services for semiconductors, batteries and software platforms.
On Hon Hai Technology Day last year, Foxconn released three new models in one go - the electric coupe SUV Model E, the electric bus Model T and the Model C, and since then it has unveiled its car-making ambitions. Now with the unveiling of two new cars and the mass-produced version of Model C, the path to making cars is also clearer.
Last year, Foxconn acquired its Ohio factory from electric truck startup Lordstown Motors for $230 million, and owned its first automobile factory. At the same time, Foxconn also manufactures OEM for Lordstown Motors' automobile production and Endurance, its first pure electric pickup truck, has recently been launched in this factory.
Another electric car startup INDIEV has also recently reached an agreement with Foxconn to build a prototype of its first mass-produced car at its Ohio factory in Foxconn. In March this year, Model T has also been delivered to Kaohsiung passenger transport for operation.
However, Foxconn's road to building cars is not smooth.
Foxconn's layout in the automobile industry can be followed as early as 2005. It spent 370 million yuan to acquire Antai Electric, one of Taiwan's four major automotive wiring harness factories, and is involved in automotive electronic equipment such as battery wires and reversing radars. Foxconn has thus officially entered the automotive supply chain and subsequently supplied products to brands such as BMW , Mercedes-Benz .
In 2014, Terry Gou also launched an electric vehicle project code-named "A-Fu Initiative", but its development was not satisfactory.
Then Foxconn and Tencent and Harmony Auto jointly established "Harmony Futeng" to try to build cars. "Wei Xiaoli" was also established during this period. Compared with many new forces, it was not too late for Foxconn to start trying to make automobiles. But similar to the A-Fu Initiative project, Harmony Futeng has also embarked on the old path of difficult labor. Byton Automobile, which was derived from this, was filed for bankruptcy liquidation in November last year.
During this period, Foxconn also reached a cooperation with Geely . In January last year, the two parties announced that they would establish a joint venture to provide OEM production and customized consulting services to global automobile and travel companies, including but not limited to automobile complete vehicles or parts, intelligent control systems, automobile ecosystem and electric vehicle full industrial chain and full process.
There are also Foxconn's participation in the cooperation between Geely and FF. Also in January last year, Geely officially announced that it had signed a framework cooperation agreement with FF. The two parties planned to cooperate in the fields of technical support and engineering services, and discussed the possibility of OEM services provided by a joint venture between Geely and Foxconn. But the possibility of this cooperation may be difficult to achieve in the short term - the mass production time of FF 91 has been delayed again this year.
partners are hard to count on, and they have to go into the battle themselves if they want to build a car. In 2020, Foxconn and Yulon Group jointly established a joint venture company, Honghua Advanced, with Foxconn holding 51% of the shares.The three models of Model E, Model T and Model C that were first released last year were created by the company.
Musk once joked with Foxconn: "Compared with mobile phones or smartwatch , cars are very complicated. You can't find suppliers like Foxconn and say 'Build a car for me'."
Today, this scenario seems no longer unimaginable. However, whether Foxconn's car manufacturing business can impress car manufacturers and turn them over their bodies and even their souls - this issue has become increasingly sensitive in recent years, and it is still unknown how large the market size it will eventually leverage.
