Foxconn will consider acquiring Renault’s stake in Nissan if it is a condition for working with either carmaker on electric vehicles, the Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer said on Wednesday.
“We did have talks about acquiring a stake in [Nissan],” Foxconn chair Young Liu told reporters on Wednesday in the company’s first confirmation of the talks. “If [taking a stake] is necessary for co-operation, we will consider it, but buying shares is not our main goal. Our main goal is co-operation.”
Liu’s comments clarify Foxconn’s rationale for negotiating an investment in Nissan after the breakdown of takeover talks between Honda and Nissan revived the possibility of a deal with the Taiwanese group.
Best known for its role as the main contract manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone, Foxconn is building a business designing and manufacturing EVs for other companies to sell under their own brands.
While it has signed up some EV start-ups as customers, contract orders from either Renault or Nissan would be its first partnership with a traditional carmaker outside its home market of Taiwan.
Liu said he expected to announce such a co-operation deal within one or two months, and Renault, Nissan and Honda were among carmakers in talks with Foxconn about contract orders.
Nissan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its shares had fallen 6.3 per cent by the early afternoon in Tokyo on the news and are down almost 13 per cent so far this year.
The company has come under fierce pressure due to competition from China and after failing to capture the hybrid boom in the US. As part of a turnaround plan, it intends to cut 9,000 jobs and a fifth of its production capacity.
The failed talks with Honda — which would have created the world’s fourth-largest automotive group — were precipitated by Foxconn’s interest in Nissan, according to people familiar with the matter.
Renault has been reducing its holding in Nissan ever since a drastic restructuring of their long-standing alliance in 2023. It has a 36 per cent stake in the Japanese company and wants to offload 18.7 per cent currently held in a French trust.
Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Foxconn’s EV division and a former Nissan executive, was reported to have met Renault chief Luca De Meo in December for talks about acquiring shares held in the trust, triggering panic within Nissan and the frantic negotiations with rival Honda.
The Financial Times reported last week that Renault had reactivated talks with Foxconn. However, Nissan has the first right of refusal if the French group does decide to sell its shares.
Nissan is also conducting its own search for a strategic partner in the tech industry following the collapse of merger talks with Honda.
