Mitsubishi Motors plans to outsource EV production to Taiwan's Foxconn, Kyodo says

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's Mitsubishi Motors, a junior partner of Nissan Motor, plans to outsource production of electric vehicles to Taiwan electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn, Kyodo News said on Thursday.

The move is aimed to help the carmaker cut output costs and speed development of its product lineup, while Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry, hopes to secure a foothold to collaborate on EVs with Nissan and Honda, Kyodo said.

Mitsubishi Motors said it did not provide the information and would continue to "explore collaboration opportunities with various partners to achieve sustainable growth".

Foxconn said it had no comment.

Last week Foxconn told a quarterly earnings conference it expected to sign an EV deal with an unspecified Japanese car maker within two months.

Earlier, it had also said it would consider taking a stake in Nissan for cooperation, as the world's largest contract electronics maker, best known for its role as an Apple supplier, has ambitions to diversify into EVs.

A proposed merger of Honda and Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors' largest shareholder, fell through last month and sources have told Reuters Nissan is open to working with new partners, Foxconn among them.

Mitsubishi Motors is discussing developing software for EVs with Honda and Nissan, Kyodo said, with the tie-up set to be announced before the end of March.

(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez)