The MIH Consortium, an electric vehicle (EV) alliance led by Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), plans to introduce its first commercial electric vehicle prototype in October, it said on Wednesday.
Work on the A-segment Project X demonstration EV is progressing well, MIH CEO Jack Cheng (鄭顯聰) said in an interview at the Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show.
The three-seat EV is likely to be completed in October and begin mass production in 2025, he said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The consortium also plans to unveil concepts for a six-seat version of the vehicle next year and a nine-seater in 2025, Cheng said.
MIH plans to focus the vehicle’s promotion on transportation and logistics companies, he said.
MIH had said earlier that the three-seat Project X vehicle would retail at under US$20,000, while buyers would be able to choose from a wide range of customization options via the MIH “build your own vehicle” model.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
MIH has been working with Hon Hai and Thailand’s PTT PCL to extend the consortium’s supply chain into Thailand, where it plans to set up a technological innovation center, Cheng said.
Created to serve the MIH EV open platform, the MIH consortium became operational in July 2021 as part of Hon Hai’s efforts to enter the EV market and diversify from contract manufacturing into hardware and software capabilities.
The open platform was initiated by Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電), a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Yulon Motor Co (裕隆), and aims to become what executives called “the Android of the EV industry.”
The MIH alliance has 2,621 members in 69 countries and regions around the world.
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
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
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