Apple’s main supplier Foxconn has tried and failed to diversify away from its biggest customer for years. Plans for an Apple car may have given Hon Hai — the name by which the contract manufacturer is listed in Taiwan — a new push at the expense of short-term profits.  

Foxconn’s fortunes still lie in the hands of the US smartphone giant. Strong iPhone 12 sales pushed Foxconn revenues up 15 per cent in the fourth quarter. Yet earnings missed expectations. Net profits fell 4 per cent to NT$46bn ($1.6bn).

That reflects Foxconn’s aggressive shift from its core electronics assembly business to electric car production. It is set to offer an electric vehicle “platform” — a flexible basic design — that helps partners with 80 per cent of development. Companies using the platform would have to contract all production to Foxconn.