4 years after the Fox-con started, they're still giving empty promises

A special 4th anniversary hit on Monday in Wisconsin.

Happy Foxconn Day everyone! https://t.co/TY999l9GdU

— Jud Lounsbury (@JudLounsbury) July 26, 2021

If you're new here, I knew this was an expensive fraud from Day 1, although my prediction of a backdoor to toll roads was wrong, because we ended up paying $252 million in state tax dollars to speed up the I-94 upgrade (although I have little doubt Walker would have tried to install tolls had this state been dumb enough to keep him in office).

In fairness, anyone with an IQ above 80 that had done 5 minutes of research would have known the same, but it's telling to see the GOP trolls in the comments try to claim this was going to be a great victory and had guaranteed Walker's re-election. Which was always the real motivation behind the Fox-con - it was ALWAYS a desperation move to try to make up an image of Walker and Trump as "job creators" before the 2018 election.

4 years later, Foxconn is somewhere between a punchline and an eye-roll, and a lesson to the rest of America of how not to do economic development. But maybe there's a glimmer for the leveled miles of land in Robbin' Vos' district Racine County, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had news earlier this month about how some kind of manufacturing might finally be coming from the Foxconn site.

Foxconn Technology Group and Fisker Inc., a California car maker, are talking with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. about building electric vehicles in the state, Foxconn confirmed Thursday.

"As part of the site selection process, Foxconn and Fisker have engaged with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to discuss plans for electric vehicle manufacturing," Foxconn and Fisker said in a statement. "Foxconn and Fisker look forward to discussions with the WEDC."

The Verge followed up on that report, continuing its strong summary of the Fox-con, and is rightly skeptical of Foxconn ever making anything out of these plans.

The Taiwanese conglomerate said Friday [July 9] that it has started talks to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) about making EVs with California startup Fisker Inc. at the mostly empty site it owns in the state. This is despite chairman Young Liu saying in March that he would decide between building EVs in Mexico or Wisconsin by July 1st, and Foxconn and the WEDC agreeing to a far smaller tax subsidy package in April that reflected the failure of the LCD project.

Why did Foxconn take a new deal with the WEDC in April when it knew it had EV ambitions in March, only to announce another negotiation with the state in July? Well, because that’s how things go with Foxconn in Wisconsin.

…Foxconn and Fisker Inc. first announced their partnership in February and have since shared that they plan to build a low-cost electric sedan, currently called Project PEAR, which stands for “Personal Electric Automotive Revolution.” The two companies signed a framework agreement in May.

A framework agreement that probably isn’t worth the paper it was signed on.

(Side note, how is Foxconn coming along on the 10,000 ventilators it said it was going to make last year? Wait, you’re telling me it didn’t work out? Bummer).

Bruce Murphy of Urban Milwaukee has called out Foxconn early and often over the last 4 years, and he is warning against the possibility of the state of Wisconsin being suckered into giving more money to either of these sketchy firms.

The history of the two companies raises questions. Fisker has struggled since 2007 to manufacture electric vehicles. In 2013, the company laid off 75 percent of its workforce and filed for bankruptcy. And Foxconn is again making predictions that don’t come true. The company had said it would decide whether to manufacture the cars in Mexico or Wisconsin by July 1, which hasn’t happened. It’s also not clear whether Foxconn would be be manufacturing cars or components. Young-Way suggested the goal was to compete with companies such as Magna. If so he appears to have fallen behind. Fisker recently announced that Magna will begin manufacturing of the battery-electric Fisker Ocean SUV on Nov. 17, 2022 at Magna’s facility in Graz, Austria. The vehicle will be sold in the U.S. at a base price of $37,499.

Meanwhile, Fisker Chief Executive Henrik Fisker added more uncertainty to its deal with Foxconn, saying four states are under consideration for where to manufacture the cars — without revealing the names of the other three states. And at this point, after four years of failed promises by Foxconn, any state would be wary of asking taxpayers to support a deal with the company. Fisker’s claim that other states are interested seems strategic, to pressure the administration of Gov. Tony Evers to give Foxconn yet another subsidy of some kind.

Yet the two companies have said the production of these cars wouldn’t start until the end of 2023, more than six-and-a-half years after the original Foxconn deal with Wisconsin was announced. That’s a lifetime in the fast-paced world of electric car manufacturing, that is pitting Tesla, GM and many other car makers against each other, and could undermine the economic basis for the Foxconn project by then, as previously happened with LCD manufacturing.

And how coincidental that Foxconn/Fisker is claiming they wouldn’t start anything until 2023 – after the elections for Governor and the State Legislature, among other offices. Funny that.

It's sort of “good things are coming, just you wait” BS that we’ve seen throughout the last 4 years of Foxconn Failure, and I think we can safely ignore these folks and stop throwing money at these grifters.