Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is to develop an electric vehicle (EV) with Fisker Inc, as part of the electronics manufacturer’s efforts to boost its automotive capabilities at a time when technology companies including its main customer, Apple Inc, are looking to expand into vehicles.
The vehicle would be targeted at multiple markets, including North America, Europe, China and India, and sold under the Fisker brand, the firms said in a statement on Wednesday.
Production is set to start in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Photo courtesy of Hon Hai Precision Industry
Californai-based Fisker is looking to break new ground with its second planned model. The start-up plans to make a vehicle that does not fit into an existing segment, like a sedan or SUV.
Its partnership with Hon Hai is pinned on hopes that the collaboration would bring innovative manufacturing.
“The auto industry is very stale,” Fisker founder Henrik Fisker said in an interview.
“We still talk about adopting the Toyota manufacturing system,” he said, referring to a production and logistics concept that was developed decades ago.
Fisker plans to design and market the vehicle, while Hon Hai would supply the chassis, and manage supply chain and assembly.
That is asking a lot of a firm that has never built vehicles in large volume before.
“I have full confidence that they can do this and maybe have ideas that are outside the box,” Fisker said of Hon Hai.
Shares of Fisker rose 39 percent to a record US$22.58 at the close in New York. Hon Hai shares advanced as much as 5 percent in Taipei.
Hon Hai in October last year introduced its first-ever EV chassis and a software platform aimed at helping automakers bring models to the market faster.
This month, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said that two light vehicles based on the platform would be unveiled in the fourth quarter.
The firm is also planning to help launch an electric bus, he said.
Hon Hai is expected to build more than 250,000 vehicles annually for the Fisker partnership, the statement said.
The manufacturer might choose to make some of them in the US, a person familiar with the matter said.
Following Wednesday’s memorandum of understanding, the two sides said that they would enter a formal agreement in the second quarter.
Fisker is the second battery-powered vehicle venture founded by its namesake founder, a longtime vehicle designer. Its debut model, the Ocean electric SUV, is scheduled to start production late next year.
JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon on Tuesday quipped that his company is likely to outlast the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while reiterating the bank’s commitment to the country in wide-ranging comments that also touched on Taiwan, free speech and former US president Donald Trump. “We hope to be there [in China] for a long time,” Dimon told a panel discussion at the Boston College Chief Executives Club. Relaying a “joke” he made during a recent visit to Hong Kong, he said “The communist party is celebrating its 100th year. So is JPMorgan. And I’ll make you a
Taiwan is to start producing geothermal energy on a commercial scale for the first time in nearly 30 years tomorrow, when an Yilan County facility begins operations. The 4.2 megawatt Cingshuei Geothermal Power Plant in Datong Township (大同) — the first privately built geothermal power plant in Taiwan — was granted commercial license by the Bureau of Energy on Oct. 27, county authorities told the Central News Agency on Tuesday. Lin Kun-wei (林坤緯), a section head at the Yilan Business and Tourism Department, said that the facility would generate up to 3,150 kilowatts per hour, which could meet the demand of up
The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday said it would impose a property hoarding tax as it is seeking to contain speculation in the real-estate market, calling recent price increases “abnormal.” The announcement came in support of the Ministry of Finance’s call for local governments to levy a high tax rate on people with more than one property. Ministry officials on Tuesday discussed strategies to rein in speculation with the nation’s six special municipalities, as well as the Hsinchu city and county governments. About 84,000 out of 1.06 million housing units in Kaohsiung are not residential property, the city government said in a
BOOST EXPECTED: Higher market prices would offset effects of the industry’s transition to more climate-friendly production methods, a company official said China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) expects steel demand to increase on the back of governments around the world subsidizing infrastructure construction amid a stabilizing COVID-19 pandemic, CSC chairman Wong Chao-tung (翁朝棟) told an investors’ meeting yesterday. “After getting through the hard times, I foresee at least one year, very possibly two years, of strong steel market,” Wong said. Calling a dip in steel prices a “short respite for the market,” Wong said that it would likely bounce back early next year on the back of mild winter temperatures around the world allowing construction activity. Despite COVID-19 spikes in some regions and increased
RSS