It’s not Foxconn — it’s ‘Foxtron’.
If the lay public knows about Taiwanese Foxconn at all, it’s as a name closely associated with producing the electronics juggernaut that is Apple’s iPhone. Now, though, the manufacturing giant is moving into electric cars, in part as a joint venture with Taiwanese Yulon Motor. The group announced three of its “Foxtron” line Monday, set to go on sale sometime next year, according to Reuters.
The ambitious plans materialized in an electric bus, as well as a Pininfarina-designed sedan and a SUV. In addition to supplying components or services for 10% of the world’s electric vehicles within the next five years, this range will be a springboard to diversify its manufacturing portfolio — though it’s not explicitly clear where these vehicles will end up outside the island country.
Size, range and performance details
Headlining the event is the SUV, which Foxconn calls the “Model C”. It’s a seven-passenger vehicle, though it’s more in the compact segment with its 183-inch length. It boasts a 0.27 drag coefficient — slightly lower than a Volkswagen ID.4 — and a claimed range of 435 miles. Unlike most of its conventional gasoline competition, it will also do a 0-62 mph sprint in 3.8 seconds. Mind you, these are just pre-production units for now, so those figures are subject to change.
Then there’s the Model E. It’s clear the Foxtron brand is targeting Tesla here, with some 750 horsepower on tap. That will supposedly make it capable of 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds. Claimed range for this car is 466 miles — ahead of the current Tesla Model S but behind the some Lucid Air models, at least according to official figures. Per Reuters, it’s unclear exactly when this car (or the SUV for that matter) will launch, and the sedan will fall under a yet-to-be-named brand.
One vehicle that did get a production date is the Model T bus (below). That will sport a range of 249 miles, Foxconn says, and run up to 75 mph. Other than that, the company did say the bus meets Federal Transit Administration (FTA) standards — a sign that we may see the electric bus on American roads.
Whether we’ll see the passenger vehicles in the U.S., on the other hand, is completely up in the air. As part of the company’s EV build-out, it announced a deal to buy a factory from Ohio-based Lordstown Motors to build electric vehicles. Foxconn also inked a deal with Fisker to build that company’s cars. So while it’s expanding its automotive presence, we’ll have to see whether these in-house cars actually make it across the Pacific — or if they’re even built in the United States in the next few years.
