Apple could use Foxconn to assemble an 'Apple Car'
Following reportedly unsuccessful talks with existing car manufacturers, Apple may be considering using existing suppliers, such as Foxconn, for the production of the "Apple Car."
Apple's talks with car manufacturers may be continuing, but the company is said to be looking at existing iPhone assemblers too
As reports continue that Apple is still in talks with various car manufacturers, a new claim suggests that the company may be forced to turn to its existing supply chain. Component suppliers and assembly partners such as Foxconn, or Magna, may be tapped for the production of the "Apple Car."
According to Bloomberg, talks with car companies have floundered over how such partnerships would work. Reportedly, manufacturers are not willing to become contract assemblers instead of car developers.
Bloomberg asserts that unnamed sources within the industry believe that Apple will turn to Foxconn and Magna. Foxconn is Apple's major iPhone assembler, while Magna is an auto industry firm that has previously worked on "Apple Car."
The new Bloomberg claim backs up recent reports that Foxconn has already been investing in car production, via Chinese electric vehicle company, Byron. Foxconn is now also working with EV maker Fisker to produce vehicles by 2023.
Bloomberg further claims that an unspecified Apple employee says that Foxconn is used to following Apple designs and requirements.
Apple's talks with car manufacturers may be continuing, but the company is said to be looking at existing iPhone assemblers too
As reports continue that Apple is still in talks with various car manufacturers, a new claim suggests that the company may be forced to turn to its existing supply chain. Component suppliers and assembly partners such as Foxconn, or Magna, may be tapped for the production of the "Apple Car."
According to Bloomberg, talks with car companies have floundered over how such partnerships would work. Reportedly, manufacturers are not willing to become contract assemblers instead of car developers.
Bloomberg asserts that unnamed sources within the industry believe that Apple will turn to Foxconn and Magna. Foxconn is Apple's major iPhone assembler, while Magna is an auto industry firm that has previously worked on "Apple Car."
The new Bloomberg claim backs up recent reports that Foxconn has already been investing in car production, via Chinese electric vehicle company, Byron. Foxconn is now also working with EV maker Fisker to produce vehicles by 2023.
Bloomberg further claims that an unspecified Apple employee says that Foxconn is used to following Apple designs and requirements.
Comments
Foxconn is not a foundry. They mostly assemble components sent to them from elsewhere around.
Holding discussions with existing auto makers never made any sense to me, unless they were feigning interest to gather Intel only. If I were an automaker I wouldn’t even meet with Apple for exactly that reason.
Although this may sound counterintuitive, Apple is better off going it alone or with a limited set of partners they know and trust. Apple needs to understand how all the bits and pieces are manufactured. Jony Ive was a great designer because he knew how to make things with his own hands. Apple needs to grok all of this if they are to have any chance of success.
2. Not just Mazda but there are politicians involved. The Japanese government will never allow them to sell, and if you look at how Sony - now a fully American company (though they claim to be "global") is treating its Japanese workforce and consumers these days I do not blame them.
3. Not just the Japanese politicians. The global regulators would never approve of it either, for mostly illegitimate reasons - Apple would never be allowed to buy Beats in today's environment either, and Google outright defied them in closing their FitBit purchase because they know that their breakup is inevitable anyway - but for some legitimate ones too.
4. Finally, Apple has their reasons: their cherished reputation as a progressive, beneficial environmentalist company ... the "good" as opposed to the "bad" Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, oil companies etc. Were they to buy a company that currently makes ICE (internal combustion engine) cars, they would join the ranks of the evil polluters. However, scrapping the ICE operations in favor of EV ones would put a ton of high-salary employees out of work. It would also have Apple take on billions in annual losses on operations for years as right now the market for EVs is tiny compared to ICEs.
So please, no talk about why Apple should buy this car company or that one. Any car company you name will run into at least 3 of the 4 barriers above. Apple really does need to go back to Kia/Hyundai with terms that both entities can agree on, which would be Apple paying Kia/Hyundai more money to be their manufacturing partner and licensing them some of their IP to be their design partner. The idea that any car company was ever going to accept being Foxconn was always absurd.
It's okay for Apple and these other manufacturers to walk away from negotiations. That's their best alternative -- at this point.
What has been reported is that Apple has been negotiating with companies who manufacture in the US. At this point, it looks like Apple Car jobs will not be coming to the US. One may bitch and moan about China, et al, taking American jobs, but the truth might be more like Americans, at the least their employers, don't see an upside to more American jobs.
Apple has succeeded partnering with companies who were hungry and succeeding against companies that too satiated to try something different.
Is Foxconn hungry? It does seem so.
The Foxconn Wisconsin site was not designed for the manufacture of cars -- the promise was screens.
Janesville Wisconsin was the site of a GM plant. Closed of course. Is there still a source of labor and skill from there? But, there is no mass transit to bring the labor to the Foxconn site. True to form, Republican Governor Walker way back when, made sure to kill a train line, part of Obama's economic recovery proposals that might have been useful for this purpose.