TAIPEI -- Foxconn on Monday unveiled three electric vehicle prototypes as the iPhone assembler attempts to turn its nascent auto segment into a 1 trillion New Taiwan dollar ($35.78 billion) business in just five years.
The Taiwanese company introduced two passenger EV models and an electric bus prototype at its annual Foxconn Technology Day event in Taipei.
"We have done almost one collaboration project each month in the past year to ensure our supply chain capability and potential markets [for EVs]," Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said at the event. "We are no longer the new kid in town."
Liu told Nikkei Asia that Foxconn's target is to be earning NT$1 trillion a year in EV-related revenue by 2026. "It's a goal we must achieve," Liu said.
Foxconn's total revenue for 2020 was NT$5.35 trillion, and it estimates that its EV-related business will contribute more than NT$10 billion this year for the first time.
Regional manufacturing will be a major trend for the EV industry as producing cars close to the markets where they are sold will help manufacturers keep costs down, Liu said. He added that Foxconn will soon announce the details of its EV production plans for Europe.
Foxconn founder and former chairman Terry Gou, who arrived at the event driving one of the EV prototypes, said it had taken the company less than a year to be able to present its own EVs to the public.
"It is by far the best birthday present I've ever had in the past 71 years," Gou said. The annual event is held on Oct. 18, the day he was born, and, in a further nod to the founder, starts at 10:18 a.m. sharp.
The three EV prototypes are made by Foxtron, a joint venture between Foxconn and Yulon Motor, a Taiwanese automaker founded nearly 70 years ago that produces Nissan and Mitsubishi cars for the local market. It also has its own brand, Luxgen.
Foxconn's Model C, Model E and Model T -- an SUV, luxury passenger car and bus -- are designed for mass production and to serve as reference designs that EV brands can customize to their own specifications. Yulon Chairperson Lilian Chen said her company will be one of the earliest to adopt the designs.
The new Model C will enter the market by 2023, with the luxury Model E following later, Foxconn's representatives said. The Model T, which targets the mass transportation segment, will hit the road as early as next year in southern Taiwan.
The three EV prototypes are based on the designs of the MIH Consortium, a Foxconn-led open software and hardware platform. The aim of MIH is to reshape the traditional automotive supply chain by setting industry standards and developing "kits" combining hardware and software that EV makers can use to shorten the time and cost of developing vehicles.
Liu said that thanks to collaboration among MIH members, the retail price for the Model C is estimated to be below 1 million New Taiwan dollar ($35,700), a relatively affordable level for an electric vehicle.
The longtime iPhone assembler has been stepping up efforts to expand its presence in the booming EV industry since Liu took over as chairman from founder Gou in mid 2019. Liu has vowed to have Foxconn's designs, components, and parts in 5% of global EV markets by 2025.
Foxconn on Monday also showed off its progress in research and development for the EV supply chain, with a focus on the three most important areas: batteries, motors and electrical systems.
Earlier this month the company struck multiple deals worth $280 million with U.S. EV startup Lordstown Motors to acquire its manufacturing plant in Ohio and help it make its Endurance full-size pickup truck from April next year. It also secured orders from another American EV startup, Fisker, to make EVs in the Ohio complex by late 2023.
Foxconn also plans to build an EV manufacturing facility in Thailand by 2023 to serve Southeast Asian markets as part of its cooperation with Thai oil and gas company PTT.
To gain more control over the supply and development of silicon carbide chips, or SiC chips, Foxconn announced it had acquired a semiconductor facility in Taiwan. SiC chips have the high voltage resistance and heat-dissipating qualities needed for EVs.
Foxconn's Shanghai-listed subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet recently spent 378 million yuan to buy a 63% stake in Hengdrive, a Chinese developer of advanced motors, while its Android smartphone assembly arm, FIH Mobile, is developing autonomous driving software and cockpit software.