Taiwan’s Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn has announced a partnership with Thailand’s state-run energy group PTT to make electric cars.
The agreement marks Foxconn’s on-going expansion into electric vehicles (EVs), with deals over the past year with Chinese electric-car makers Byton and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group along with global car maker Stellantis, created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Group. In May, Foxconn said it will make 150,000 vehicles a year from 2023 in partnership with high-end US electric car maker Fisker.
In the most recent deal, Foxconn and PTT have reached a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in making EVs and components for the Thai market, marked by a virtual signing presided over by Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
Under the partnership, the companies will develop an “open platform” that provides both hardware and software services to automakers in the country, the statement said.
Foxconn’s EV activities could become a threat to established car makers, allowing non-traditional players to enter the market at scale using contract assemblers.
The platform in Thailand will build on the Foxconn-led industry alliance, MIH, a network that the company said would offer manufacturers a cost-effective solution for making EVs.
“This cooperation with PTT and the Thai government to realise the vision of sustainable development of the EV industry, demonstrates that the MIH ecosystem is growing,” Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way said.
Source: Reuters
