Foxconn and Byton Electric Vehicle Project Suspended

Foxconn’s partnership with a young Chinese electric vehicle development company Byton has been suspended due to the deteriorating financial situation of the latter.

In January, it became known that Foxconn plans to invest about $ 200 million in Byton and take over the serial production of the first electric car of a potential Tesla competitor. The Byton M-Byte was slated to be launched by the first quarter of 2022. However, several people familiar with the matter say the project was put on hold less than six months later and the Taiwanese company has shifted its focus to other ongoing electric vehicle projects.

According to informants, the project has not yet been officially terminated, but is unlikely to be resumed. The few Foxconn employees who are still at the Byton plant are mostly preparing to complete the project. Allegedly, some of the high-profile specialists involved in the project even left Foxconn.

The work was stopped because of Byton’s debts and a complex shareholder structure that includes Chinese local governments. These conditions created far more difficulties than Foxconn anticipated.

For Foxconn, the end of the partnership will be disappointing, as the Taiwanese company saw the project as a way to enter the EV contract market to offset the downturn in the smartphone market.

In turn, it will be more difficult for Byton without Foxconn’s support to release the first electric vehicles next year, as planned. Founded in 2017 by two former BMW executives, the company was once considered one of the Four Dragons – the most promising EV startups in China, along with Xpeng Motors, Nio and Li Auto.