Foxconn’s Mobility in Harmony (MIH) CEO Jack Cheng hinted that the company is eyeing India as one of its target locations to build a standardised electric vehicle (EV) production unit.
MIH is the EV manufacturing unit of the Taiwanese tech giant that announced plans to launch a three-seater EV priced below $20,000.
Cheng told Reuters that MIH is willing to work with its parent or collaborate with some other EV manufacturing company to produce the said category of EV. For the same, the company is reportedly in talks with convenience stores, car rental companies and logistics companies and aims to close the talks before it unveils the prototype this October.
Chengg did not reveal the names of the companies that MIH is in talks with but confirmed that the price of the EV will range between $10,000 and $20,000. Other than India, the EV maker is also considering Thailand for the production site.
He said, “You build where the potential market is…In India or Southeast Asia, you have a huge volume opportunity right now.”
Further adding to this, Cheng said that he wants to build another Shanghai, probably in India. “If this is a Foxconn plant, fantastic, it’s the mother company, we put it into the Foxconn plant. If this is a local India plant and it’s even more competitive, give it to the India plant,” he added.
Earlier also, the company had hinted at plans to make India one of its bases for manufacturing EVs. In its annual report 2022, Foxconn stated that in addition to information and communication technology (ICT) products, it is also planning to venture into the EV space.
Back then, Foxconn said that for semiconductors, the company is setting up a complete supply chain and there are plans to launch a joint venture in India for the 12-inch wafer fab.
However, soon after, it announced that it would pull out of the joint venture worth $19.5 Mn with the Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta to produce semiconductors in India. The deal was signed in 2022 to manufacture semiconductors in Gujarat.
The development comes at a time when Tesla officials are on a visit to India for consecutive meetings on setting up an EV and components manufacturing plant in the country. The executives reportedly met Invest India’s new CEO Nivruti Rai on Thursday (July 27) and had plans to meet commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal soon.
During PM Narendra Modi’s US visit, Musk told the media, “I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible.”
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