Foxconn’s EV Dreams
November 3, 2025
Jay RameySharp's anonymously-styled minivan concept with multimedia inside obscures the grander EV plans of its parent company.
Sony and Honda’s screen-laden Afeela sedan may have seemed promising in 2023, but feels like an entirely diferrent time in EV business. The nearly-six-figure sedan has yet to launch even in a limited fashion, yet other electronics makers are putting their own EV plans into motion.
Japanese electronics maker Sharp used this year’s Japan Mobility Show to introduce its second electric minivan concept in as many years, developed along with iPhone maker Foxconn, now a majority stakeholder in the company.
This year’s Sharp concept is a little less boxy, opting for more of a family minivan look while embracing a decidedly gray color palette. But the EV is still focused on providing a theater experience inside, featuring a pull-down screen above the rear seats and a projector in the console between the front seats.
“By swiveling the driver’s seat to face backward, it creates a living room-like atmosphere where you can sit around with the rear seats,” Sharp says. “Pulling down the screen installed above the rear seats allows you to enjoy movies or conduct online meetings on a large display.”
But is there actually something else hiding under this particular concept?
Sharp’s utilitarian exterior obscures the fact that this is a Foxtron Model A EV underneath, and is based on a string of far more realistic and compelling designs we’ve seen from the Taiwanese electronics giant over the past few years.
The Foxtron brand isn’t well-known, but it did show a Pininfarina-designed Model D concept in 2024.
The Taiwanese manufacturer has been on a mission to break into the EV sphere, going as far as purchasing GM’s former Ohio plant that had housed Lordstown Motors for a brief minute. Foxconn sold it in August, pivoting away from plans to build EVs there under contract.
In the interim, Foxconn plotted to produce Fisker Inc. models in Ohio, until the EV maker’s own bankruptcy in October 2024.
Foxconn’s apparent preference is to build EVs for other automakers, leaving them to put their own badges on them and take on the task of marketing the vehicles to consumers through their own dealer network.
But in the process of wooing carmakers over the past few years, Foxconn has developed a very compelling string of near-production concepts. This raises the question: Why doesn’t Foxconn launch its own lineup of EVs under its own name?
In May 2025 Foxconn and Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding that could see Foxconn build an EV for Mitsubishi to sell. But the plans are rather limited at the moment, and have yet to materialize.
“The EV model to be supplied to Mitsubishi Motors as an OEM model will be developed by Foxtron, manufactured in Taiwan by Yulon Motor Co., Ltd. (Yulon Motor), and introduced in the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand) in the second half of 2026,” Mitsubishi said earlier this year. It’s the first major deal that Foxconn has managed to land, but its actual implementation remains to be seen.
If supplying EVs for other brands doesn’t work out, perhaps Foxconn could lay the groundwork by selling other devices under its own brand name (or a subsidiary brand, like Sharp) and then leveraging the consumer recognition of that branding to launch an auto business. This approach worked for China’s Xiaomi, which until recently was mainly known for consumer tablets and phones. Xiaomi quickly achieved name recognition in its home market on the strength of its consumer brand.
And since Foxconn already assembles some devices for Xiaomi, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try.
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