iPhone manufacturer Foxconn buys US assembly plant to build electric utes

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has entered into an agreement with American EV maker Lordstown Motors to acquire the majority of the company’s 6.2 million square foot production and assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

Foxconn – best known for being the producer of Apple’s iPhone – has struck a deal worth around $US230 million that will see it manufacture Lordstown Motors’ Endurance electric ute at the plant, which was once dedicated to GM’s Chevy Cruze.

“We have high expectations through this partnership that we will be able to successfully integrate our resources with Lordstown Motors,” said Young Liu, Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn).

“In addition to achieving the goal of moving ahead our timeline to establish electric vehicle production capacity in North America, it also reflects Foxconn’s flexibility in providing design and production services for different EV customers.

Lordstown has had a rocky road recently, losing both its CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez following revelations in in a regulatory filing that the company did not have enough money to begin production.

Endurance production is also still on a long timeline, with the company announcing at the end of September that it was only planning to build a limited number of Endurance vehicles for testing, validation, verification, and regulatory approvals during the remainder of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.