New Reporter
01-10-21, 20:35
Foxconn wants to buy factory from electric car start-up
01.10.2021
The Taiwanese company has so far been best known as a manufacturer of Apple devices. Now Foxconn wants to step into the auto business. And buys a factory for an electric car start-up in America.
The electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn is buying a factory in the USA to enter the auto business. The Taiwanese company, known primarily as a manufacturer of Apple devices, wants to buy the turbulent electric car developer Lordstown Motors' plant in the US state of Ohio. The price should be $ 230 million (just under 199 million euros), as the companies announced on Friday night. A final deal has yet to be negotiated.
Foxconn is currently heavily expanding its activities in the auto business. The group is developing its own vehicle platform and also secured the electric car developer Fisker as its first customer for contract manufacturing. With the purchase of the US plant, the joint vehicle could get into production faster, wrote founder Henrik Fisker on Twitter. Fisker builds the first Ocean model with the experienced auto contract manufacturer Magna.
As part of the deal with Lordstown, Foxconn will also manufacture the company's vehicles at the purchased facility, including the first model, the Endurance pickup. On the US auto market, pickups are the most lucrative vehicles and the established manufacturers are competing with young companies to convert the category to electric drives.
Lordstown Motors is struggling, however, and warned investors in the summer that the company's survival was not assured. Lordstown bought the factory about two years ago for $ 20 million from General Motors. The auto giant was under pressure from then US President Donald Trump and was looking for a buyer for the already closed plant.
01.10.2021
The Taiwanese company has so far been best known as a manufacturer of Apple devices. Now Foxconn wants to step into the auto business. And buys a factory for an electric car start-up in America.
The electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn is buying a factory in the USA to enter the auto business. The Taiwanese company, known primarily as a manufacturer of Apple devices, wants to buy the turbulent electric car developer Lordstown Motors' plant in the US state of Ohio. The price should be $ 230 million (just under 199 million euros), as the companies announced on Friday night. A final deal has yet to be negotiated.
Foxconn is currently heavily expanding its activities in the auto business. The group is developing its own vehicle platform and also secured the electric car developer Fisker as its first customer for contract manufacturing. With the purchase of the US plant, the joint vehicle could get into production faster, wrote founder Henrik Fisker on Twitter. Fisker builds the first Ocean model with the experienced auto contract manufacturer Magna.
As part of the deal with Lordstown, Foxconn will also manufacture the company's vehicles at the purchased facility, including the first model, the Endurance pickup. On the US auto market, pickups are the most lucrative vehicles and the established manufacturers are competing with young companies to convert the category to electric drives.
Lordstown Motors is struggling, however, and warned investors in the summer that the company's survival was not assured. Lordstown bought the factory about two years ago for $ 20 million from General Motors. The auto giant was under pressure from then US President Donald Trump and was looking for a buyer for the already closed plant.