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iPhone manufacturer Foxconn confirms it would seek to buy Renault’s stake in Nissan if up for grabs
Foxconn chairman Young Liu is hoping his EV aspirations will be aided by a potential future partner. · Fortune · Annabelle Chih—Bloomberg/Getty Images

In This Article:

  • Renault’s alliance with Nissan, built up during the reign of former CEO Carlos Ghosn, now exists effectively only on paper. Foxconn could scoop it up as the Taiwanese contract manufacturer looks to expand into the EV market.

Taiwan’s Foxconn is in exploratory talks to purchase a 15% stake in Japan’s Nissan Motor from French carmaker Renault, it confirmed on Wednesday.

The Apple iPhone contract manufacturer has been eyeing an expansion into electric vehicles, a market Nissan helped popularize when it launched the Nissan Leaf EV back in December 2010, more than a full year before the Tesla Model S.

“Renault happens to own some stake in Nissan, and [we] discussed the stake,” Foxconn Chairman Young Liu was quoted by AFP as saying on Wednesday during a corporate event. “Our main purpose is to talk about cooperation.”

Nissan, whose equity is valued at a modest $9.9 billion, has been in play ever since talks to merge with healthier domestic rival Honda collapsed last week.

Liu said his company, known domestically as Hon Hai Precision Industry, was not looking to acquire Nissan, however. Foreign takeovers are extremely rare in Japan and remain a sensitive topic. Instead, Foxconn is looking mainly to team up with either Nissan or Renault, he explained.

Nissan told Fortune it was “aware of the reports,” but declined to comment further, while Renault did not respond to a request for comment. The French carmaker is unlikely to extract much strategic value out of its stake, as there are no new cross-corporate projects that could yield synergies through joint R&D, production, or purchasing, so an exit might prove useful depending on the price.

Ever since electric vehicles became the emerging technology of choice for young, tech-savvy, and increasingly affluent Chinese consumers, more and more companies, especially in Asia, have sought to break into the EV market.

A prime example is Vietnam’s first-ever domestic carmaker, VinFast, which briefly became the industry’s third most valuable company in the world behind only Tesla and Toyota.

The switch from conventional cars defined by their mechanical hardware to electric vehicles that differentiate much more through their software has removed many of the barriers to entry that had traditionally walled off the auto industry from new competition.

Why would Foxconn want a partner?

Whether through iPhone maker Foxconn or chip foundry TSMC, Taiwan is well known for its third-party manufacturing. It wouldn’t seem like producing cars for other brands would be that different.