The Taiwanese tech company Foxconn is said to be in talks with an investor from Saudi Arabia to build electric cars in that country. The technical basis of those cars must come from BMW.
Yes, there’s a lot going on in the headline and introduction above. So a Taiwanese company is going to build an electric car in the Middle East on a German base? Sure, logical! It’s a complicated story, but it still sounds plausible. First of all, there is Saudi Arabia, a conservative country that is heavily dependent on oil revenues and wants to change that in order to be more future-proof. That’s why it made plans to build EVs, which would also give it its first serious experience when it comes to car production.
According to Automotive News, Saudi Arabia has therefore started talks with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group. This is originally an electronics manufacturer, but has shown increasing interest in cars in recent years. For example, the company works together with Stellantis and Fisker and has even presented two electric cars under the Foxtron brand name.
In Saudi Arabia, Foxconn would act as a supplier of software and the developer of the electronic architecture of new EVs to be developed. To make things easier, those electric cars would be placed on a platform built under license from BMW. That’s less unusual than it sounds, because that’s how Vietnamese Vinfast started.
These plans are not yet beyond the rumor stage, as the companies involved are keeping their mouths shut to Automotive News. So there is nothing to do but wait patiently.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl