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.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS