"Compared with mobile phones and smartwatches, cars are very complicated. You can't find suppliers like Foxconn to build cars for me." A simple joke made Musk say nothing. Foxconn not only wants to build cars, but also wants to manufacture Tesla .
On October 18, Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai Group held a Science and Technology Day event. At the event, Foxconn released two new cars, Model B and Electric Pickup Model V. However, compared with the release of new cars, Volkswagen's focus seems to be more on the speech on the spot by Foxconn Chairman Liu Yangwei, "I hope one day we can produce cars for Tesla."
As we all know, Foxconn is the world's largest electronic product OEM, and it is also the main OEM for Apple 's iPhone and other products. All Tesla's electric car are produced by its own factory and have been rapidly expanding the production capacity .
Therefore, in the eyes of the outside world, Foxconn's "love show across the air" is to show its strong "car-making" ability, and on the other hand, it is to attract Tesla's attention and produce cars for it.
Foxconn's "car-making dream"
If you look at history, Foxconn's relationship with automobiles can be traced back to 2005, but at that time Foxconn was just a supporting provider for car companies.
In 2005, Foxconn spent 370 million yuan to acquire all shares of Antai Electric to produce reversing radars, smart devices and other products. For example: Nissan , Volkswagen and other traditional automakers are their customers, and Foxconn has also officially entered the automotive components industry.
From 2010, Foxconn began to provide electronic products to Mercedes-Benz , BMW , Tesla and other manufacturers, including the panels in some models of Model S. Foxconn is also provided by Foxconn. This may also be the first time Foxconn and Tesla have formed a relationship.
. What really made Foxconn take the pace of car manufacturing is five years later.
In 2015, under the leadership of Tencent , Foxconn established a new car brand - Harmonious Auto . Foxconn is responsible for the production and manufacturing of automobiles, Tencent mainly provides the Internet of Vehicles system, and Harmony Automobile is responsible for marketing and building corresponding service networks. Of course, the cooperation ended up in the end.
Time comes in 2020, and Foxconn and its important partner Yulon Automobile jointly established - "Honghua Advanced" company.
With the help of the new company, Foxconn released three models in succession last year, namely the home SUV model Model C, the luxury sedan Model E and the electric bus Model T. Among them, Model T was officially handed over to the passenger station for operation at the beginning of this year. In addition, Foxconn has released five new cars for the two new cars this time. However, judging from the naming of the new car, Foxconn has some meaning of "striking" Tesla.
Although "Model" is not Tesla's patent, most car companies will try to avoid this word to avoid confusion or direct comparison by car owners. And Foxconn uses "Model" so unlucky, which is somewhat like a drunkard.
Also on Hon Hai Technology Day in 2020, when Foxconn launched the MIH electric platform and established the MIH alliance, Liu Yangwei said that Tesla is the iPhone among electric cars, and Foxconn hopes that the MIH platform will become the Android of electric cars. Unexpectedly, just two years later, Foxconn's attitude turned 180 degrees and began to want to help Tesla build cars. From this point of view, Foxconn seems to have established a new planning goal, which is to focus on both self-development and OEM.
In the industry's view, Foxconn's "love show" is obvious to Tesla's goal, which is nothing more than to have a greater exposure and to mass-produce some models to prove that it has the ability of an OEM factory, so as to obtain orders from new power brands and traditional car companies. As for the name "Model" it doesn't matter.
Foxconn's dilemma
Of course, for Foxconn, the reversal of attitude may be more from the pressure of reality.With the bottleneck of the mobile phone business and the competition in the industry chain , Foxconn's life is not easy.
Previously, Foxconn released a semi-annual report showing that in the first half of this year, Foxconn's revenue was 225.26 billion yuan, and its net profit was only 6.872 billion yuan, and its gross profit margin had declined to 6.50%. In 2021, its gross profit margin had fallen by 8.3%.
From the background of the smartphone industry, the overall market is unrest. On October 19, market research firm Canalys released the third quarter of 2022 smartphone market report. The report shows that the global smartphone market fell 9% year-on-year compared with , and has fallen for three consecutive quarters. Even though the price increase of the newly launched iPhone 14 can stimulate a wave of smartphone market, the growth of Foxconn's profit is not much.
In comparison, new energy vehicle industry has become a popular industry in the entire industry. Taking the domestic market as an example, according to the data recently released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in September, the sales of new energy vehicles were 708,000, increased by 6.2% month-on-month, increased by 93.9% year-on-year, and penetration rate of was 27.13%. From January to September, the cumulative sales reached 4.567 million vehicles, an increase of 1.1 times year-on-year, with a penetration rate of 23.5%.
Among them, Tesla has played a "leading" role in the field of electric vehicles. Not long ago, the China Passenger Car Association released Tesla's sales data for September this year, delivering 83,135 new cars in a single month, setting a new record high in a single month. From January to September, Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory delivered a total of 483,074 vehicles, close to the annual delivery figure in 2021, and the global cumulative delivery volume exceeded 3 million vehicles.
This may be the real reason why Foxconn is determined to get closer to the automotive industry.
However, Foxconn "seems to have but not many" core technologies that electric vehicles pay attention to. At this technology day, Foxconn did not introduce it too much, only a few sentences to summarize it. The general meaning is that the solid-state battery will be launched, which will improve the safety density and charging speed, and be safer and longer range. As for software, Hon Hai will launch HHEV.OS, and we must create standards and become a software ecosystem.
Nowadays, it is no longer new to "big factories" to build cars. In addition to traditional car companies and new car brands, many brands such as Apple , Xiaomi , etc. will join this battle in the future. For Foxconn, once technical barriers hinder themselves from standing out in the new energy vehicle market, they will inevitably take the lead in the field of "OEM", and Tesla, which is rated as the "iPhone" in the automotive industry, is the best choice.
