TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Foxconn Technology Group has concluded a deal with the Lordstown Motors Corporation to purchase the latter’s electric pickup plant in Ohio for US$230 million (NT$6.86 billion), reports said Thursday (May 12).

The agreement, reached a week before a May 18 deadline, will give the iPhone contract manufacturer its first base in the United States to produce electric vehicles (EVs) — first the Lordstown Endurance pickup and later the Fisker PEAR SUV.

In addition to the factory itself, the deal also covers a joint venture of which Foxconn holds 55% and Lordstown 45%, and includes safeguards for the 400 employees already working there, CNA reported.

The new venture will develop vehicles based on Foxconn’s Mobility in Harmony (MiH) Open EV Platform, according to a Foxconn news release. Its investment in the joint project will reach US$55 million and launch the Endurance pickup during the third quarter of 2022.

In addition to the Lordstown venture, Foxconn has also been preparing EV projects in Taiwan, with an electric bus already operating in Kaohsiung City, and in Thailand, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.