Will your next Nissan or Mitsubishi electric car be built in Taiwan? How an iPhone manufacturer might help build a Japanese Tesla rival after failed Honda merger talks

In the weeks since Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi ended talks to merge the three car brands into one conglomerate, a new player has entered the conversation.

Foxconn, the controversial tech company best known for manufacturing the iPhone, is reportedly in the final stages of making a deal with Mitsubishi to build electric cars for the automotive brand.

According to Nikkei Asia, the two companies have been in talks for more than six months, though it's unclear if the plans had any impact on Mitsubishi’s decision to remain independent of Honda and, to some extent Nissan - aside from their involvement in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

Nissan and Mitsubishi may also have another fact in common, as it was also recently reported that Nissan and Foxconn are in talks to cooperate on EV manufacturing too.

The two legacy brands could find benefits in outsourcing their EV production to Foxconn, though Foxconn has also expressed strong interest in entering the automotive space through concepts and tech showcases.

Foxconn Chairman Young Liu has been searching for ways to diversify the company’s operations, which primarily consists of producing electronics like the Apple iPhone.

So far, Foxconn’s efforts to enter the automotive space have seemingly met dead ends, aside from Foxtron (the Model B of which is pictured) which operates primarily domestically in Taiwan. This new Nissan cooperation could possibly be its best ‘in’ yet for the company to explore export markets.

In contrast, Mitsubishi this week kept cards close to its proverbial chest in responding to the initial reports from Japan’s Kyodo News that the brand would work with Foxconn on its EV manufacturing.

“The information reported is not issued by our company,” Mitsubishi Motors said in a statement.

“We will continue to explore collaboration opportunities with various partners to achieve sustainable growth.”

A report from Reuters outlines a much more open discussion between Foxconn and Nissan, in which Foxconn apparently would consider taking a stake in Nissan, while the tech company said it also expected to “sign an EV deal with an unspecified Japanese car maker within two months”.