Hon Hai Precision was founded in 1974 to make components for other manufacturers. The company slowly progressed from plastic pieces to electronic cables and connectors in the 1980s.
Although still relatively small, the company opened a complex in Shenzhen, known as Foxconn City, in 1988 and started expanding its reach. After a deal was made with Dell computers in the mid-1990s, growth of Hon Hai took off. By 2004, the company was manufacturing computers and servers for some of the world’s largest brands. Additional contracts for mobile phones and video game consoles kept the growth going.
Acquisitions of Chi Mei Optoelectronics and Japan’s Sharp Electronics filled out the company’s technological résumé, ensuring its place among computer equipment suppliers. Over the past two decades, Hon Hai has supplied key products to Nokia, Sony, BlackBerry, and, of course, Apple.
This story is an extract from the December 2022 issue of AutoForecast Solutions' monthly report. AutoForecast Solutions is the only fully integrated solutions provider of vehicle, powertrain, drivetrain and electrification production forecasting, business planning software and advisory services to the global automotive industry. Click here to download the full report, or to catch up on previous months.
Today, the company, commonly referred to as Foxconn, is the largest employer on mainland China, with over one million workers. According to its own information, it has facilities in Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Mexico, Slovakia, the US and Vietnam, in addition to Taiwan and China.
In recent years, Foxconn branched out into other Foxconn-Yulon EV brand Foxtron was formed in 2021 industries. Extensive experience in electronics made the move into modern electric vehicles an obvious next step. This became public in October 2020 with the announcement of an EV platform.
Labeled MIH (“Mobility in Harmony”), the architecture is described as an open source software and hardware platform for EVs. This has been designed to work on EVs just as Android works with smartphones, the company has said. A growing consortium of companies joined to use the technology for upcoming production vehicles.
Add your comment