Could iPhone-style contract manufacturing come to the car industry?

Enlarge / Building cars-as seen here at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Kecskemet, Hungary-is harder than designing them. (credit: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Foxconn Technology Group doesn't design, market, or sell a single product. Yet, ironically, it is one of the largest consumer electronics manufacturers on the planet. Chances are you have at least one of the products it builds within reach right now. Could the same type of arrangement work in the auto industry?

It would make sense if traditional carmakers like FCA, Ford, and General Motors could be hired to build or assemble cars conceived by vendors like Apple, Uber, and Waymo/Google, says Bryan Reimer, a research scientist in MIT's AgeLab and associate director of The New England University Transportation Center at MIT, vehemently. In fact, he insists it's already happening.

You design it, we build it

Foxconn is the king of contract manufacturers. It assembles a multitude of items: everything from flat-screen televisions to smartphones for cash-rich tech giants like Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, and others. A client hands Foxconn a set of schematics. The Taiwan-based manufacturer then manages the supply chain and quickly builds the product so that the client can market and sell it to the masses.

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