Sharp’s Next Move Isn’t A TV—It’s An EV

• Sharp wants to unveil an electric minivan concept at the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon.
• The vehicle targets affordability and promises to deliver a “living room on wheels” experience.
• Parent company Foxconn will reportedly help bring it to market by 2027.

Cars are becoming increasingly electrified and software-defined. This shift in the industry is making the car-making game increasingly attractive to companies that wouldn’t have considered making cars a decade ago. Back then, who would’ve been willing to bet Japanese electronics giant Sharp would announce a car project?

Hardly anybody, but that’s exactly what the company announced today. Next week, Sharp plans to unveil a concept for its first-ever car—a minimalist electric minivan with a price tag it says “families can comfortably afford.” Nikkei says the study previews a series model that will enter production in 2027.

This isn’t actually Sharp’s first vehicle concept. In 2024, it revealed its LDK+ study, which had more of a van form factor. But the company says this new design is completely different and lighter than last year’s study, although it keeps the same ethos of being a “living room on wheels.”

The concept isn’t a final representation of what the company plans to produce, but it is closer to production compared to the previous one.

The news that Sharp wants to build a car may not be so surprising if you know who owns the brand. Taiwan-based technology company Foxconn (best known as the manufacturer of the iPhone) paid $3.5 billion in 2016 to gain a controlling 66% stake in Sharp, which was and still is struggling financially. Pivoting to cars could be a way for the company to stay afloat.

And Foxconn has wanted in on the car business for a long time. Its attempts have included acquiring the former Lordstown Motors factory in Ohio (itself a former General Motors plant) as part of a plan to build EVs in the U.S., but that never came to fruition. And it’s been rolling out its own EV concepts for years now. (Foxconn also announced a tie-up with Mitsubishi earlier this year, but it’s unclear if the ventures are related.)

Maybe the deal with Sharp will actually happen this time. Foxconn will provide the underpinnings for the new Sharp car, which looks like a typical people carrier with sliding rear doors. We don’t know much else about it other than the fact that it will have a projector and roll-down screen to double as a mini mobile cinema. This is something that really appeals to Chinese buyers, hinting at which market this vehicle was being designed for.

The Sharp electric minivan could be related to the Model D EV revealed by Foxconn’s automotive division, Foxtron. The company describes the vehicle as a Lifestyle Multipurpose Utility Vehicle (LMUV), and its focus is to provide a premium and tech-packed interior experience with four individual screens.

Underpinning it is an 800-volt platform that promises 410 miles (660 km) of WLTP range from an LFP battery with at least 100 kilowatt-hours of capacity. Foxtron revealed the Model D as a near-production concept, but it may never see a production line, and it could become the Sharp minivan instead, losing its Pininfarina-designed exterior.