The Wall Street Journal reported on November 3 that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF) will partner with Foxconn Technology Group to produce electric vehicles as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to build an industrial sector that he hopes the sector could diversify the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil, and Salman currently chairs the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
The two parties will form a joint venture to build an electric vehicle brand called Ceer, which will license BMW ’s component technology to build cars. The two sides also said in a joint statement that Foxconn will develop in-vehicle electronics with infotainment, connectivity and autonomous driving technologies.
Ceer will develop sedans and sport-utility vehicles ( SUVs ) for the mass market , with the goal of first deliveries in 2025, the parties said.
Foxconn is famous for being Apple’s foundry, and in the era of PCs and smartphones, it has abundant manufacturing resources in the industry chain. Now with the shrinking smartphone market, Foxconn is under increasing pressure, and turning its attention to the booming new energy vehicles of OEMs has become a way out for it to find new points for the company.
In 2020, Foxconn established joint ventures with Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and Yulon Motors respectively. In 2021, it will establish a joint venture with Geely Holding as a foundry. In addition, it once signed a foundry cooperation agreement with Byton Motors, which has been bankrupt and reorganized.
On October 18, Foxconn’s parent company, Hon Hai Group, held a technology day and released two new models, the hatchback Model B and the electric pickup Model V, as well as the Model C mass-production version. In addition to the luxury sedan Model E and electric bus Model T released on the Technology Day last year, Foxconn has five models in its electric vehicle product line, covering SUVs, sedans, buses and pickups. However, Foxconn said that these models are not for the C-end consumer market, but are used as prototypes for brand customers’ reference.
In the past year or so, Foxconn founder Terry Gou personally stood on the platform, acquired, invested, and cooperated with more than 10 electric vehicle projects. The scope of the layout has expanded from China to Indonesia and the Middle East. The investment fields have ranged from complete vehicles to battery materials to intelligent cockpits, and Foxconn also owns its first car factory by buying old General Motors plants.
Since 2016, Apple’s mobile phone performance has shown a downward trend, and Foxconn’s revenue growth has also begun to slow down significantly. Data show that in 2019, Foxconn’s revenue growth rate was only 0.82% year-on-year, far lower than 8% in 2017. The total mobile phone sales in the first half of this year was 134 million, a year-on-year decrease of 16.9%. In terms of PC tablets, global shipments fell for the fourth consecutive quarter, down 11% year-on-year.
Post time: Nov-05-2022