Foxconn reveals three electric vehicles, including Pininfarina-designed flagship sedan
Foxconn's ready to do more than build iPhones. Its next big tickets are electric cars.
Monday marked a big shift for Taiwan's Foxconn. The company best known as an iPhone supplier revealed three electric vehicles it plans to bring to market through partnerships: an electric SUV, a flagship sedan and an electric bus. The debuts took place during the company's Hon Hai Tech Day 2021, which adopted an overarching tone of becoming a "global next-generation automotive manufacturer."
Beginning with the Model C SUV, pictured above, it uses the company's new open platform as a starting point to build electric vehicles. With a wheelbase just shy of 10 feet long and overall length of 15 feet, the vehicle seats seven and boasts a drag coefficient of 0.27. Foxconn said the SUV is meant to provide the space of a large luxury car, but keep a smaller footprint for city living. As for mechanicals and specs, Foxconn didn't share much, but this EV should do 434 miles on a single charge and go from 0-62 mph in 3.8 seconds.
Continuing Foxconn's Tesla-like naming strategy, we move right along to the Model E, a sedan hailing from storied Italian design house Pininfarina. Best known for its long-running partnership with Ferrari, it worked with Foxconn to design a sedan worthy of the word "flagship." It's not the most distinctive design, but it certainly has presence, in my opinion, with a wide light bar and traditional sedan proportions. We don't have any more photos, but Foxconn said the rear seat of the Model E can transform into a "mobile office."
Personal technology, including mobile devices, works seamlessly with elements of the car and this ecosystem promises facial recognition to unlock the car, as well as "smart windows." The company expects 466 miles of range and a 0-62 mph time of 2.8 seconds, with 750 horsepower at the driver's disposal.
The last vehicle wears a familiar name: the Model T. Certainly, Foxconn will need something different if it ever wanted to try and sell this big electric bus in the US. Ford might have something to say about appropriating the name of its iconic mass-produced car, which helped the US get moving in the early 20th century.
The bus sounds like it's closer to reality than the sedan or SUV, as Foxconn underscored the testing and research the Model T has under its belt. That includes 124,000 miles of endurance tests and 1,000 hours of strength testing. Right now, Foxconn believes the bus will have enough juice to carry passengers for 250 miles.
Foxconn is serious about the car business. It recently acquired startup Lordstown Motors' car plant in Ohio and this past summer bought a semiconductor chip plant. When the cars are ready, they'll come to market via the company's joint venture with Yulon Motor, and hopefully, they keep the cool "Foxtron" name.