| If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.  The Tesla Model X is here with yoke steering, the Mustang Mach-E gets a boost in battery capacity, and the VW Group has more EVs on the way. But first:  This week Foxconn, best known stateside for assembling Apple iPhones, took the wraps off not one but three EV concepts, previewing an SUV, sedan, and a large commercial passenger bus. The two models pertinent to potential consumers—an SUV dubbed the Foxtron Model C and a sedan badged as the Model E—promise plenty of horsepower and plenty of range, over 400 miles each, along with a body designed by Pininfarina in the case of the sedan. Is a Tesla competitor just around the corner? The electronics manufacturer and aspiring automaker certainly promised quite a bit in a very short span of time, just days after plans to operate Lordstown Motors' Ohio plant were revealed. But the deal does not necessarily mean that Foxconn will immediately begin churning out its own models at the same Ohio plant—it has other plans in mind for the midwest factory. It's clear that along with its own EV architecture and the Foxtron brand, it's eager to get into the EV business. Whether the EV business will be there to welcome it in all regional markets is another question.  A concept sedan and SUV were shown under the Foxtron brand, promising a lot of range. Needless to say, operating Lordstown's factory should allow it to get its foot in the door stateside while letting others worry about sales, namely the troubled Lordstown Motors, while allowing it to experiment with its own EV architecture in a highly evolved auto market. Where the US footprint will eventually take it remains to be seen, as quite a lot has to happen before it could begin selling its own designs stateside. It's clear that a lot of resources have already been spent to get Foxconn this far when it comes to EVs, but this won't be its first factory effort in the states, lest we forget.  INDI EV envisions electric cars as video arcades. Speaking of aspiring EV automakers, a startup based in Southern California is planning its own Tesla-fighter, and promises to begin offering it just under two years from now. Will it be the planned starting price that could tempt buyers, if the INDI ONE proceeds to production, or all the gaming hardware inside?    Over the weekend Tesla has begun deliveries of the updated Model X, after a few delays and periods of low production earlier this year. The automaker's SUV, which first debuted in 2015, has received interior and exterior updates that were first teased at the start of this year, but production of the updated model had not commenced until relatively recently.  Volkswagen has made it clear that it wants to become an EV leader, planning for half of its entire lineup to be battery electric by 2030, and its headway over the past year suggests that rapid progress has been made—despite the stresses of the pandemic and the current industry-wide chip-shortage woes. The Volkswagen Group has revealed it has delivered 122,100 battery-electric cars worldwide in the third quarter of this year, representing a 109% increase over the third quarter of 2020, pushing its total EV lineup share to more than 6%.   Spread the word: If you know someone interested in staying on top of the rapidly growing EV segment, feel free to pass this newsletter along.
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Friday, October 22, 2021
iPhone maker Foxconn wants to get into EVs
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