While the world’s humans become increasingly accustomed to electric vehicles, South Africans are still deprived of an accessible range of options. Nevertheless, tech companies across the globe continue to invest heavily in EV tech, including Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer best known for making Apple’s kit.
At a recent tech event, Foxconn revealed three electric vehicle prototypes — a luxury sedan, an SUV and a bus. They’re all planned under the Foxconn branding and will be built on Foxconn’s open software and hardware platform, MIH Consortium.
The three’s names are quite reminiscent of another big EV player, coming in as the Model C, Model E and Model T vehicles.
Foxconn’s Apple Car?
First off, the Model T bus will allow for up to 400km on a charge, can hit a top speed of 120km/h and includes a few nifty features like pedestrian warnings, advanced temperature management and high crashworthiness.
More interesting, however, is the Model C, which is an electric SUV coming in 2023 (in Taiwan only as far as reports go). This one’ll be able to go from 0-100km in just 3.8 seconds. According to TechCrunch, the company plans to offer this vehicle for under $35,700.
Then there’s the higher-end Model E, which comes in the shape of a luxury sedan, designed in collaboration with a company called Pininfarina.”It will offer 750 horsepower and deliver a 0-62 MPH time of 2.8 seconds, along with a 750 km range,” TechCrunch reports.
Thing is, we’re not likely to see an Apple logo on any of these vehicles, even though the report clearly details how Foxconn plans to manufacture EVs in the US at some point. It’s even less likely that we’ll see any of ‘em in South Africa, as the report makes it clear Foxconn plans to manufacture EVs as close to the market they sell in as possible.
