Taiwan’s Hon Hai in talks to partner with Audi, BMW

TAIPEI - Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest contract electronics maker, is in talks with German luxury-car makers BMW AG and Audi AG with a view to creating a manufacturing partnership.

Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said his company will make a "huge investment" in Germany. "One reason is that we will have very big development plans with German car makers, including Audi and BMW," Gou told a press briefing, but did not provide details of the plans.

Another key investment destination for Hon Hai is Indonesia, where the Taiwanese conglomerate plans to set up bases to manufacture mobile devices for BlackBerry Ltd., as well as building a machine-to-machine network with the Canadian handset maker, Gou said.

The United States, however, will remain Hon Hai's largest overseas market in the next three years, with the company seeking new locations for cloud computing and automation plants, Gou said.

His remarks came within a month after BMW unveiled its i3 electric car  in Las Vegas. The car uses ultrasound sensors to find parking spaces parallel to the road and even takes over the parking of the car through its electronically controlled steering.

At the same show, Audi demonstrated its prize-winning "piloted driving" technology on a specially equipped A6 sedan, which took total control of steering, braking and accelerating for the driver (ATI).