By Bianca Flowers
(Reuters) – Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, on Tuesday said it will build driverless electric tractors for California-based Monarch Tractor at its Lordstown, Ohio facility starting in early 2023.
The announcement comes as heavy machinery manufacturers, including Deere & Co. and Georgia-based AGCO, set their sights on the electric vehicle market as the U.S. agriculture industry shifts to smart farming.
“This partnership reflects Foxconn’s growing center of gravity for autonomous electric vehicle production and the potential that can emerge from forward-thinking collaborations,” Young Liu, chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group, as Foxconn is formally known, said in a statement.
The agreement with Monarch Tractor is the first manufacturing contract Foxconn, best known for assembling Apple Inc’s iPhone, has entered since purchasing the Ohio facility that was formerly a General Motors Assembly plant last year.
Production for Monarch’s battery powered MK-V series tractor is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023, Foxconn said.
Monarch, which is based in Silicon Valley, debuted its first autonomous electric tractor last year and has since entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Italian-American vehicle manufacturer CNH Industrial.
CNH Industrial has a minority stake in Monarch Tractor.
(Reporting by Bianca Flowers in Chicago; Editing by Jan Harvey)
