Foxconn eyes India as global EV hub: report

IPhone maker Foxconn Technology Group is exploring plans to make India its third global electric vehicle (EV) hub after the US and Thailand, Business Standard reported on Monday.

The multinational contract manufacturer of electronics goods has a plant in Ohio, US, with a production capacity of up to 600,000 units a year, and another plant in Thailand that makes 50,000 EVs a year.

The Taiwanese company aims to tap the potential EV outsourcing market and has plans to contribute 5% of global EV sales, or about 700,000 units, by 2025.

The Business Standard, citing the company’s plan, said the EV assembly unit in India will make electric two-wheelers bound for the domestic as well as Southeast Asian markets.

Officials at Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., have met with authorities in Telangana and Tamil Nadu, and a decision on setting up the EV plant will be taken soon, the report added.

The company had said in its last annual report that it has plans to make passenger cars. The company currently assembles commercial EVs and e-buses.

Foxconn’s push into EVs comes even as it sounded caution on declining demand for the devices that it makes for Apple and other global firms.

In its quarterly results announced on Monday, Hon Hai said it expects sales this year to decline despite earlier forecasts of a flat revenue amid a pullback in spending on electronics by consumers.

The company reported a 30% slump in operating income at $968 million in the June quarter.

Meanwhile, Foxconn last week doubled down on investments in Telangana state by topping up its earlier $150 million funding with an additional capital infusion of $400 million.

Sharing a board decision on three funding proposals that were submitted to the Hong Kong Exchange on Friday, Foxconn representative in India V Lee wrote on LinkedIn, “Telangana is making rapid strides! Another $400 million is on its way.”

“FIT Singapore intends to inject $400 million into Chang Yi Interconnect Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd, in which FIT Singapore holds 99.99% of the capital stock,” FIT Hon Teng Ltd, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., or Foxconn, said in the note to the exchange.

As Apple’s largest vendor for iPhones across local and export markets, Foxconn is already the largest manufacturing services provider in India, producing 70% of iPhone shipments globally.