Foxconn EV venture targets India, Thailand for new small car: Report

Foxconn’s venture attempting to build a standardised electric vehicle platform, is looking at India or Thailand for the production of a small battery-powered car in the works, MIH CEO Jack Cheng told Reuters exclusively.

The Taiwanese company's EV platform unit Mobility in Harmony (MIH) would be willing to work with its parent or another company to work on the new three-seat EV priced below US$ 20,000 and suited a corporate delivery fleet, MIH CEO Jack Cheng told the newswire in an interview.

He refused to divulge the names of the companies in discussions with MHI, but informed the newswire that the car would have a price range between US$ 10,000 to US$ 20,000. India and Thailand are likely contenders for production sites, he said, adding that he expected India to be crucial to MIH's longer-term growth.

"You build where the potential market is...In India or Southeast Asia, you have a huge volume opportunity right now," Cheng said, calling India a potential "emerging power for the next generation" in the EV sector, he added.

Foxconn established the MIH consortium of some 2,600 suppliers two years ago, with the aim of creating an open platform that could become the equivalent of Google's (GOOGL.O) Android operating system for EVs.

Cheng conceded MIH had "not seen success yet" but said returns for participating suppliers would come with orders for a range of new EVs called Project X. The idea is to use low-cost, shared platforms to allow corporate fleet operators to order custom-made EVs, Reuters reported.

"I'm building another Shanghai, probably in India," Cheng said. "If this is a Foxconn plant, fantastic, it's the mother company, we put it into the Foxconn plant. If this is a local India plant and it's even more competitive, give it to the India plant."

Foxconn, which only produces a small number of EVs at present, has set an initial target of gaining a 5% share of the global market by 2025. MIH's sales will count towards Foxconn's target, Cheng said.