Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) has started building electric vehicles (EV) for Lordstown Motors Corp, a milestone as the company known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) diversifies its operations.
Lordstown expects to deliver 50 of its Endurance pickups this year after the first two rolled off the line at a former General Motors Co plant in Lordstown, Ohio, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The EV company has to raise additional capital to deliver the next 450 vehicles planned for the first batch of production, currently slated to be handed over in the first half of next year.
Photo: AP
Initial output is moving slowly due to “part pedigree and part availability issues,” Lordstown chief executive officer Edward Hightower said in the statement.
For Foxconn, the primary maker of Apple Inc’s signature iPhone, the start of production marks a significant step in its push into the EV space.
The tech giant has said it plans to build vehicles for Fisker Inc at the Ohio factory in addition to the ones for Lordstown. It also revealed its own Foxtron-branded prototypes in October last year, including a city bus, and has held talks with Saudi Arabia about making EVs there.
Foxconn had previously struggled to see through an LCD factory in the US. That project has since stalled, and the plans have been greatly diminished.
The start of production with Lordstown comes four months after Foxconn completed its purchase of the plant.
The company gave Lordstown US$230 million in exchange for the factory and invested US$55 million in a new joint venture with the start-up, giving it much-needed cash.
Lordstown on Thursday said that it expects to have finished the just-ended third quarter with US$195 million in cash and equivalents.
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