Taiwan’s Delta Joins Foxconn in Betting on Electric-Car Riches

Yancey Hai

Photographer: Debby Wu/Bloomberg

Delta Electronics Inc. predicted rapid growth at its fledgling electric-vehicle component business for this year and beyond, joining a bandwagon of Taiwanese suppliers bulking up their automotive muscles as tech giants including Apple Inc. venture into the car market.

“Our EV-related business will grow at least at a double-digit rate over the next few years,” Delta Chairman Yancey Hai said in an interview on Wednesday. “We will further integrate our existing power products into modules and optimize them to make it easier for EV makers to build their vehicles.”

Automotive customers accounted for a small fraction of Delta’s revenue in 2020, but are becoming increasingly important for growth. Delta and peers including Foxconn Technology Group are betting on electric cars as the next big thing as demand for PCs and smartphones, the main products that the Taiwanese suppliers have long depended on, is hitting a plateau.

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A longtime power-product supplier to Apple, Dell Technologies Inc. and other global tech companies, Delta started to build its EV-component business more than a decade ago. It now supplies power products or power chains to Tesla Inc., General Motors Co., Stellantis NV and other major carmakers.

Technology companies plotting forays into the EV business could provide an opening for their current suppliers. Apple has a team of engineers working on drive systems and vehicle designs, though its autonomous, electric auto is at least half a decade away, people familiar with the matter have said. The U.S. company has said little about the project.