Apple has not seen mass production in eight years, but Foxconn has taken the lead!
As we all know, Foxconn is Apple's largest foundry, in Foxconn has not yet entered the automotive industry when Apple announced a high-profile car-making plan, when the outside world once believed that once Apple car manufacturing success, then Foxconn is very likely to be reduced to Apple car foundry. However, eight years after the car was built, costing 19 billion US dollars, Apple has not been able to build a mass production car, but Foxconn preempted Apple, released three electric products in a year after announcing the car, and will officially launch the first electric vehicle - Model T in the near future.
Seeing the name "Model T", it is estimated that many friends first thought that Tesla had launched a new product. Needless to say, such a naming method is indeed very similar to Tesla's product naming, and it cannot be said to be a reference, and even gives people a feeling of imitation plagiarism. However, if this car wants to be mass-produced, it is estimated that it will not be possible to complete the registration of trademarks in some parts of the world, so it is only a matter of time before the name is changed.
But back to the product itself, the Model T is actually a smart city transportation bus with a range of more than 400 kilometers, which is an area that Tesla has not yet set foot in. Yulon Motors will become Foxconn's first electric vehicle customer, and the electric bus Model T will be delivered next year to a local transportation supplier in Kaohsiung, Taiwan Province, and will be exported to North America and Southeast Asia.
Model T is based on the MIH commercial vehicle modular platform to build, many people for this platform is estimated to be very unfamiliar, this is 2 years ago Foxconn launched a new car platform, the platform can provide three different cooperation models, including vehicle foundry, chassis technology and external design, platform technology, the implication is that Foxconn has long mastered the core car technology.
From the positioning point of view, Model T is a high-end pure electric bus, this car not only uses a lot of bold avant-garde design in the shape, a change in the eyes of the public," the traditional bus visual sense, more like the "emerging products" after scientific and technological innovation; at the same time, the car also uses electronic rearview mirrors, as well as the center console of the triple screen, and the body has a 48-inch LCD display on all sides, known as "the first intelligent bus in Taiwan Province"; seeing here, it is estimated that many people can't believe it, and now the automotive industry is so internally rolled? Our impression of urban transportation is to pursue the ultimate intelligent technology?
And that's not all, the new car is also equipped with Hon Hai's self-developed three-electric system, which can make this electric bus have a maximum speed of more than 120KM/h and a cruising range of more than 400 kilometers. What is the concept of an electric car with a range of 400 kilometers? The full highway from Taiwan head to tail is only 397 kilometers.
In addition to this, this car also has extremely high safety performance. Not only is it equipped with a tiltable electronic air pressure suspension system, when stopping at the station, the body can be slightly tilted so that the upper and lower passengers do not need to take too many steps to get on the train, but also equipped with the "inner wheel difference warning system", but also to the greatest extent to solve the safety hazards existing in large buses when turning, it is worth mentioning that this is also the first bus in Taiwan with an inner wheel difference warning system.
At present, Model T has completed 200,000 km acceleration endurance test and more than 1,000 hours of rigid strength test, in the case of vehicle load bearing 10 tons, the body deformation caused by the removal of counterweight is less than 1 mm, which is enough to verify the strength and safety performance of its high rigid body protection.
In fact, in addition to model T, Foxconn has previously released two other cars, namely pure electric SUV Model C and pure electric car Model E, in contrast, these two passenger car products can better reflect Foxconn's car manufacturing strength and level.
Both cars are based on the Hon Hai platform to build, of which, Model C mileage of 700 kilometers, the price is relatively close to the people, about 250,000 or so, the main attack on the mainstream pure electric SUV market; and Model E is a full-size pure electric car, the length of the car reached 5.1 meters, the wheelbase also reached 3.1 meters, but also has "high-performance electric drive" and "advanced dynamic control" and other advanced technology blessing, the main luxury and performance, will be on the table Tesla Model S, Mercedes-Benz EQS and other models.
Everyone knows that Foxconn is the world's largest consumer electronics foundry, but few people know that Foxconn has always had a "car dream". Recall that two years ago, Foxconn only issued an electric platform, and directly launched three electric products after a year, which can achieve such results in one year, which is rare in the field of traditional car manufacturing, which is enough to prove how enthusiastic Foxconn is for car manufacturing. Although the product has landed, whether it can withstand the test of the market is still unknown, and we will wait and see.