First car from Foxconn is an electric crossover Luxgen n7

The Taiwanese electronics giant entered the automotive industry last year with the creation of its industry dedicated division - the Foxtron. The new company promptly proceeded to present the world with a Foxtron Model C in November 2021.

Foxtron is a company created by Yulon Group, Taiwanese automaker, and Foxconn. Until 2020 Youlon Motors and Dongfeng were selling cars under the Chinese joint-venture Dongfeng-Yulon. Now Yulon focuses mainly on Taiwanese market and owns Luxgen Motor - an established car manufacturer from Miaoli County, Taiwan.

This fairly complicated setup shows the lengths some companies will go to just to find a quicker way to break into a new industry. In the end, Foxconn indirectly owns Luxgen and will sell its cars under that brand.

Luxgen has been manufacturing and selling cars since 2009 but its deal with Foxconn, or rather Foxtron, means it will manufacture for the first time electric vehicles.

The new electric crossover will be a 7-seater and it was designed in partnership with Pininfarina. The car is supposed to go on sale this October, initially in Taiwan only but the company is already planning international exports.

All details of the car are being kept secret by the company, the Model C concept car that was a preview of the production model is the only detail we have at this stage. The production model will have redesigned front rear ends to comply with international regulations.

The Luxgen n7 will be based on Foxtron’s EV architecture, an open-source platform called MIH. It is a modular platform that allows for building EVs of all shapes and sizes - from small passenger cars to commercial vehicles.

The MIH platform has a lightweight design and it includes front and rear suspension subframes with the battery being an integral element. Braking and steering is by-wire further simplifying the adaptation process for different car models. Even the autonomous driving system is incorporated into the base structure, requiring from the car manufacturer designing just a body of the car.

It feels like we went in a circle here - back in the day all cars were body on frame, then we went to unibodies and now we are back with a body on a “skateboard” rather than frame. It allows for unlimited modifications, and an unlimited number of cars can use the same structural battery with suspension components.

Source