Foxconn, a world-renowned foundry, recently announced that it will open its self-developed electric vehicle: Model C SUV on October 18 this year, Foxconn Technology Day, and deliver it in the first half of 2023. The Model C SUV will sell for less than $36,000 (about 235,000 yuan). Foxconn's car-making efficiency is so high that people can't help but want to call Boss Jia to learn.
Why is it also called Model
On October 18, 2021, Foxconn, a world-renowned foundry, officially released the pure electric vehicle brand - Foxtron, and released three electric models: mid-size SUV Model C, medium and large sedan Model E and electric bus Model T.
Model C adopts a 2+3+2 seven-seat layout, the maximum power will be 300kW, the maximum torque is 700N·m, equipped with a four-wheel drive system, the acceleration time of 100 kilometers is 3.8s, and the cruising range is 700km. Designed by supercar manufacturer Pininfarina, the Model C features an advanced aerodynamic design that resembles the ideal L9.
Model C
Model E, jointly developed by Foxconn and Italian design company Pininfarina, is positioned as a luxury flagship sedan, also equipped with a four-wheel drive system, zero hundred acceleration time only 2.8 seconds, and cruising range can reach 750km, and equipped with face recognition, intelligent window and other functions. In terms of performance alone, Foxconn Model E has surpassed the Tesla Model 3.
Model E
Model T is currently operating bus routes in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, with an endurance of over 400 kilometers.
Model T
Foxconn has put forward a more practical development goal for the automotive business: by 2025, pure electric vehicle revenue will account for 5% of its manufacturing revenue, and the revenue target will be $30 billion, of which 40% of the spare parts of the vehicle will be manufactured by Foxconn itself.
When Foxconn just released the Model series, many media believe that Foxconn is rubbing Tesla's heat, after all, as a subversive in the automotive field, Tesla currently occupies the first position in the field of electric vehicles. Foxconn and Tesla had previously rumored that they would jointly develop the field of electric vehicles, but eventually broke up. Named "Model" series, more is Foxconn's challenge to the leader, indicating its own grand plan, the so-called "build Tesla car, let Tesla have no car to build."
A tough road to transformation
As a foundry of the iPhone, foxconn benefits from Apple's foundry business for almost 80% of its revenue. Although relying on Apple's huge foundry demand, Foxconn is currently firmly ranked first in the global electronics foundry, but this also highlights Foxconn's current core problem - excessive dependence on Apple. Although the situation is not too precarious, the future has become less certain. In order to optimize and stabilize its own supply chain system, Apple is constantly looking for new foundries. Luxshare Precision, also from China, has successfully won OEM orders for Airpod, Apple Watch and iPhone 13 Pro, occupying a place in Apple's supply chain. Looking at new competitors such as Luxshare Precision and Goertek, as well as Pegatron (under Asus) that has only recently been exposed, Foxconn is anxious.
In fact, the profits of oem Apple are not as good as before. The financial report shows that Foxconn's consolidated gross profit margin is less than 6%. The label of "Apple Foundry" has achieved Foxconn's volume today, but it has also limited Foxconn's development. With the slowdown in the growth of the mobile phone industry and the increase in labor costs, the "strongest foundry in the universe" urgently needs to find a new development direction.
Foxconn has been deeply involved in the automotive field for a long time. Since 2010, Foxconn has successively become an auto parts supplier for Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc.; has invested in Didi, CATL, Xiaopeng; and cooperated with giants such as Tencent, Geely, and Chrysler in the automotive field. With a wide layout and frequent movements, it can be said that the ambition of building a car has long been seen. Gou has said: "The car is just a four-wheeled iPhone", and what really put Foxconn on the road to building a car is generally believed to have two fuses, one is the failure of Byton, and the other is Apple's decision to build its own car (although the current Apple car team has announced dissolution). Foxconn believes that if you want to get the car foundry business, the best advertisement is to build your own car.
In October 2021, Foxconn officially released three models. In November of the same year, Foxconn spent $230 million (about 1.469 billion yuan) to acquire the former General Motors plant in Ohio, usa, from electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors, and after the acquisition, Foxconn owned the first automobile plant. In addition to markets such as Thailand, the United States and Indonesia, Foxconn's plant plan also covers major global automotive markets such as Europe and India, and plans to establish electric vehicle factories in Europe, India and South America by 2024.
Not just building a car?
In October 2020, the "MIH EV Software and Hardware Open Platform" debuted at Hon Hai Technology Day. MIH is committed to reshaping the traditional automotive supply chain by setting industry standards and developing a "suite" that combines hardware and software, and all the development results of the platform will be open to partners, so that car companies can develop the required models with the least cost and the shortest time on the basis of MIH. This is also one of the future directions planned by Foxconn, through cooperation to put up its own flag on the car-making track, and then return to the foundry field that it is most familiar with.
Foxconn's electric vehicle platform MIH members have reached 1982, from 48 countries and regions around the world. Among them, CATL, Gongda Electroacoustic, BYD Electronics, Aihua Group, etc. are MEMBERS of MIH, in addition, Beiqi Blue Valley and Geely Holdings are partners of Foxconn Automobile Ecosystem.
In fact, even in the era of intelligent electrification, veteran car companies are also equipped with pure electric platforms, such as Volkswagen's MEB pure electric platform, Toyota Motor's electrification platform e-TNGA, BYD's e platform, Great Wall Motor's ME platform, GAC New Energy's GEP platform, etc. The significance of MIH does not seem to be large. At the same time, in the three models released by Foxconn this time, the battery pack of Model T is placed in the position of four wheel packs, which seriously encroaches on the vehicle space, and the current pure electric bus products such as Yutong and BYD have long abandoned this design and chosen to arrange the battery pack at the bottom and the top of the vehicle. MiH, which focuses on vehicle optimization, doesn't seem to have left much of an impression on us.
prospect
Due to its lack of experience in the whole vehicle, Foxconn Automobile chose Yulon Automobile, which is also located in Taiwan Province, to cooperate. Although Yulon is a veteran automobile manufacturer, as a traditional car company that once created the most well-known "DuanZi car" in the circle of car friends (the fuel consumption of 100 kilometers is only 20, and the retention rate makes second-hand merchants feel frightened), the quality of the car is also criticized. Whether Foxconn can work with it to achieve its ambitious car-building goals is debatable.
Nowadays, the first round of fierce battles between the new forces to build cars has come to an end, and only a few forces led by Wei Xiaoli are left. When the second round of the curtain opened, the rich tech giants were shaking their fists. Foxconn wants to make Tesla have nowhere to go, not just to build an iPhone.
Foxconn's new car launch countdown, let's wait and see.