Foxconn pays JPY115 billion for half of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility in EV platform joint venture

Final agreement formalises six-month courtship

Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) and Mitsubishi Electric announced on 16 October 2026 that they have signed a final agreement on a strategic alliance for the joint operation of Mitsubishi Electric's automotive equipment business. Under the deal, Mitsubishi Electric will transfer 50 per cent of its stake in subsidiary Mitsubishi Electric Mobility Co., Ltd. to Lin Yin International Investment Co., Ltd., a Foxconn investment management subsidiary, for an expected JPY115.0 billion. The share transfer agreement sets an enterprise value of JPY320.0 billion and an equity value of JPY230.0 billion for the target business, with the transfer price corresponding to half of the equity value. ¹

The transaction was first flagged publicly on 24 April 2026, when Mitsubishi Electric announced a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn to explore jointly operating their automotive equipment businesses, including a contemplated transfer of half of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility. According to Automotive World, reporting on a potential deal first broke in March 2026 via Nikkei, when finalisation was then expected no later than May. Automotive World also notes the agreement builds on a data centre partnership the two companies announced in November 2025, meaning the relationship extends beyond automotive. ³⁵

Both companies frame the alliance around combining Mitsubishi Electric Mobility's technology and development capability — particularly in electric powertrains, software and vehicle control — with Foxconn's speed, scale and market-deployment strengths. Mitsubishi Electric's April MoU also pointed to synergies in electrification, autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle technologies. ¹⁵

Closing timeline and regulatory conditions

The share transfer is expected to be completed on 1 October 2027, subject to contractual conditions including approvals and clearances from relevant authorities under competition law and other applicable regulations. Mitsubishi Electric Mobility, currently wholly owned, will be jointly operated by the two co-owners after completion, and Mitsubishi Electric has told media it will revise its full-year earnings guidance on 30 October. ¹²⁶

Financial details attached to the sale include an expected impairment of roughly JPY100 billion for Mitsubishi Electric in the current fiscal year, which Automotive World and Kaohoon International both report. The equity value of JPY230 billion sits below the unit's net assets — Electrek calculates roughly JPY352 billion from JPY727.5 billion in assets minus JPY375.4 billion in liabilities — which underpins that impairment. Automotive World adds that after completion the unit will no longer be consolidated by Mitsubishi Electric. Mitsubishi Electric Mobility will initially retain its name. ³⁴⁶

What the venture will build — and what is excluded

The venture's stated product is EV platforms — the companies call them basic structures — developed in Japan and offered to Japanese original equipment manufacturers first, with international expansion intended over the medium to long term under a 'Made in/by Japan' quality banner. Per Japan's Nikkei as reported by Sedaily, the two companies plan to jointly develop an electric drive unit integrating a motor, an inverter and control software, pairing Mitsubishi Electric's motor-control technology with Foxconn's rapid development approach, and to apply Mitsubishi Electric's core technology to advanced driver assistance systems. ¹²⁷

Mitsubishi Electric brings a broad Tier 1 catalogue to the venture, including traction motors, inverters, battery management units, EV control units and on-board chargers alongside alternators, starters, engine and transmission controls, electric power steering, millimetre-wave radar and ADAS hardware. However, as Electrek notes, the deal does not include Mitsubishi Electric's SiC and IGBT power semiconductor modules, which sit in a separate power-device business the company has put into merger talks with Rohm and Toshiba since March — meaning the inverter efficiency advantage Sedaily describes as tied to in-house power semiconductors rests with the retained semiconductor business, not the venture itself. ⁴⁷

Electrek adds that the unit itself carries no proven EV components partnership: Mitsubishi Electric Mobility and Aisin agreed in May 2024 to form a joint venture for traction motors, inverters and control software, but five months later they scrapped that joint venture and downgraded it to a business alliance. ⁴

Mitsubishi Electric is among the largest suppliers of inverters, electronic control units and alternators, and will contribute powertrain, autonomous driving and in-car intelligence technology to the platforms, Automotive World reports. Its Foxconn counterpart brings contract-manufacturing scale: Foxconn says it is the world's largest electronics manufacturer with more than 40 per cent EMS market share, and entered the EV business in 2019, developing chassis and model vehicles as well as manufacturing — including a 2024 investment in a ZF subsidiary, per Sedaily's reporting of Nikkei. ³¹⁷

A shrinking base behind a growth target

The financial picture the partners have set out is one of a mature, contracting business with a turnaround target. Mitsubishi Electric Mobility generated JPY876 billion in revenue (approximately JPY875.6 billion in separate accounts cited by Electrek) and JPY54 billion in operating profit in the fiscal year through March, down JPY43.5 billion year-on-year — a decline Mitsubishi Electric attributed to weaker Japanese automaker sales in China and a smaller car multimedia business in North America. The unit forecasts revenue of JPY820 billion and an adjusted operating margin of 9.3 per cent for the fiscal year through March 2027, up from 5.7 per cent this year. ⁶⁴⁷

Against that base, the partners target more than JPY1 trillion in revenue by fiscal 2030. Automotive World characterises this as requiring growth of more than 20 per cent from a shrinking base, while Electrek calculates it as roughly 5 per cent annual growth, noting that part of the current revenue — alternators in particular — is tied to internal combustion vehicles. The unit is already exiting car multimedia and fuel injectors, and in July said it was reviewing its combustion engine business as EV demand slowed, per Electrek. ⁶³⁴

At a Tokyo press briefing, Foxconn EV chief strategy officer Jun Seki said Mitsubishi Electric's electronic control technology was what attracted Foxconn most, and that the company wants to make it 'our anchor in Japan and team up with other parts makers and automakers', according to Electrek. Mitsubishi Electric executive vice president Kunihiko Kaga said the company was 'convinced by Foxconn's vision that quality and speed must be achieved at the same time', as reported by Nikkei via Automotive World. ⁴³

Governance, precedent and open questions

Day-to-day management will remain in the hands of Mitsubishi Electric. Per Sedaily's reporting of Nikkei, Kazunori Tanaka will continue as president of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility, while Kuan Lun — identified by Sedaily as chief strategy officer of Foxconn's EV business — will join the company's board. Automotive World separately links the hands-off structure to Foxconn's experience with Sharp, which it has controlled since 2016; Seki acknowledged Foxconn's involvement in Sharp's operations contributed to its difficulties and said the 50-50 ownership could be reviewed later, with a possible stock market listing if the venture succeeds, as Automotive World and Kaohoon International both report. ⁴³⁷⁶

The deal extends a wave of restructuring among Japan's large electrical groups, which Sedaily places alongside Hitachi's 2021 parts spin-off and later stake sell-down, and Panasonic's sale of its automotive electronics subsidiary to a US private equity fund last year. It also follows Foxconn's July final agreement with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus on an equally owned bus manufacturing joint venture, per Just Auto. ⁷²

The business Foxconn is buying into is also expanding before completion: Mitsubishi Electric spun its automotive equipment group into wholly owned Mitsubishi Electric Mobility in April 2024, and before closing it will fold the rest of its car business, including the automotive operations of its overseas subsidiaries, into the unit, as Electrek reports. The partners' framing of the deal as a response to rising Chinese EV competition is explicit: Sedaily reports the venture is seen as part of a strategy to counter fast-rising Chinese rivals whose expansion is challenging Japanese and German carmakers. ⁴⁷

There is already a precedent for a Japanese badge on a Foxconn-developed EV, and it reaches the Australian market: Electrek reports that Mitsubishi Motors — a separate company from Mitsubishi Electric — has adopted a Foxtron-developed EV, its ASX VR-e built by Yulon in Taiwan, which is going on sale in Australia and New Zealand. Beyond that, what remains unconfirmed is the venture's product specifics: no platform names, model applications, customers or production timetable have been announced by either company. Foxconn's EV track record also carries acknowledged setbacks — its Fisker partnership collapsed and the Fisker Pear never reached production, per Electrek — so whether Japanese automakers will accept an EV platform supplier half-owned by a foreign company remains, as Automotive World puts it, the venture's central test. No Australian availability or specifications are attached to the new venture's platforms; its commercialisation plans begin with Japanese OEMs. ⁴³