Taiwanese global technology company Hon Hai (FoxConn) has purchased Lordstown Motors Corp.’s electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant for $230 million in Lordstown, Ohio. Lordstown Motors manufactures commercial-class electric light-duty trucks.

According to the acquisition terms, Foxconn will manufacture Lordstown Motors’ Endurance full-size pickup truck at the Lordstown facility. Lordstown Motors also agrees to provide Foxconn with certain rights concerning future vehicle programs.

“The purchase of Lordstown Motors’ manufacturing site, which was a GM plant till 2019, will be a turnkey solution for Foxconn’s EV manufacturing that will give it hand-off experience in the area,” said Bakar Sadik Agwan, senior automotive consulting analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. “The GM plant had a capacity to turn around up to 300K units annually, thus provide significant room for Foxconn to expand its capacity in the future,” he added. 

The deal may allow Foxconn to move ahead of its 2023 timeline deadline to manufacture EVs in the U.S., commented Agwan, noting that the company will have to compete against Telsa, GM, and Ford in the EV marketplace in the U.S.