The MIH electric vehicle (EV) alliance initiated by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday announced its formal establishment as the MIH Consortium, with more than 1,600 companies joining the open standard since its launch in October last year.
Hon Hai conceived the MIH as “the Android of EVs,” and the consortium’s mission is to push the MIH EV platform open standard and support its members in the development of EV-related business, it said.
MIH Consortium is a foundation that is “neutral, open and independent of Hon Hai,” and a new board would be assembled within the next six months to be “more diverse,” Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said at the inaugural event.
Photo courtesy of MIH
The consortium will “ensure an open and neutral B2B” platform, he said.
Hon Hai will continue to favor MIH members when looking for components for its own electric vehicles, he said.
“In just six months, MIH has become the most powerful EV innovation alliance in the world,” Liu said.
In founding MIH, Liu wished to take Hon Hai’s experience in manufacturing electronic devices and apply them to the production of EVs.
“The birth of MIH stemmed from our long-term experience with ICT [information and communications technology]. Following the ICT industry trends of modularization and standardization, we hope the EV industry can avoid redundant investment, and reduce development cost and time,” Liu said.
EV development time can be reduced from four to two years, and lower development costs by up to half, he said.
The consortium will have an office in Taipei, establish technical and advisory committees, and form working groups to “encourage and facilitate problem solving across the member base.”
“Today the alliance’s focus is to identify key technologies, develop reference designs and standards that bridge the gap for all members resulting in lower barriers to entry, accelerated innovation and shorter development cycles,” said Jack Cheng (鄭顯聰), interim CEO of the MIH Consortium. “Collaboration is at the heart of the alliance.”
Hon Hai has invested heavily in the EV field and is expected to launch its first EVs later in the year.
Aside from fostering the MIH platform, it earlier this year launched a joint venture with Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co (浙江吉利) and joined forces with US automaker Fiskers, with plans to develop an electric vehicle set to go into production in the fourth quarter of 2023.
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