Foxconn’s Lordstown Ramp-up Could Take Years, Executive Says

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – An executive of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known in the United States as Foxconn, told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that it will likely take years to build up electric vehicle production at its location in Lordstown.

“We want to be very smart investment wise, development wise,” Jun Seki, Foxconn’s strategy chief for EVs, told the news agency. Bloomberg also quoted the executive saying that a “fast move may be dangerous,” as global EV sales continue to slow.

Seki said given the market, it would take approximately five years to fully build out the Lordstown factory, which it acquired from Lordstown Motors Corp. in 2022.

At present, Foxconn uses the plant to produce the MK-V, an electric and autonomous-option tractor that is manufactured by California-based Monarch Tractor. Approximately 500 people are employed at the plant.

The plant once served as the Lordstown assembly operations for General Motors and has the capacity to manufacture 350,000 vehicles per year. Lordstown Motors purchased the plant in 2019 but then sold it to Foxconn three years later.

Seki added that the company has not waivered on its goal of achieving a 5% market share in the global EV market by 2025, Bloomberg reported, noting it wants to expand in Japan and Southeast Asia as well as the United States.

Meanwhile, General Motors announced Tuesday that it would discontinue using the brand name Ultium for its EV battery platform. The batteries and technologies would remain intact, GM said, and just the name is being dropped. 

However, the name of the joint venture between GM and Korea-based LG Energy Solution, Ultium Cells LLC, will remain. Ultium Cells operates a battery-cell manufacturing plant in Lordstown that employs approximately 2,000 people. A second Ultium Cells plant began production this year in Spring Hill, Tenn.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.