Foxconn’s EV dreams are far bigger than Apple

If you turn Foxconn Technology Group’s latest product sideways, it looks remarkably like the smartphones the Taiwanese company makes for Apple Inc. Except the electric bus, a sleek, shiny vehicle with rounded corners and no mirrors, heralds the firm’s slow and deliberate journey away from that one famous client to which it’s become addicted.

Separating the rise of Foxconn from the success of the iPhone is impossible. With $98 billion in orders, Apple accounted for 54 per cent of revenue at Foxconn’s flagship Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. last year. The US tech giant relies on the Taipei-based manufacturer’s assembly and supply chain prowess to keep churning out devices year after year, even when a pandemic throws the industry upside down.