“Apple-Hyundai Motors stops discussing Apple car cooperation” … mixed remarks

Amid various speculation about the autonomous electric car ‘Apple Car’, which is known to be being developed by Apple, a foreign press reported that the discussion on the cooperation between Apple and Hyundai Motor Company and Kia was temporarily suspended.

The Bloomberg news agency said on the 5th (local time) that Apple had recently halted discussions with Hyundai Motor and Kia for the development of electric vehicles, citing sources familiar with the matter. Sources explained that Apple has recently discussed similar plans with other automakers in addition to Hyundai and Kia.

Apple has been secretly pursuing the Apple Car project, Bloomberg said, the fact that Hyundai Motor Company and Kia recently assumed the attitude of indirectly admitting this to the Korean media, which made Apple’s mind uncomfortable.

Bloomberg said it was unclear when discussions between the two companies would resume, and said Apple, which had kept secret information on development projects and vendors for years, would have been upset when news of the vehicle-related discussion broke. electrical.

Bloomberg also said that even if negotiations resume, whether Hyundai or Kia produce Apple cars could be a problem. In response, the sources said, “Kia is more promising, and if Kia takes on consignment production, it will be produced at a plant in Georgia.”

Earlier, on the 8th of last month, a media report came out that Apple is proposing to cooperate and negotiate with Hyundai Motor Group to launch an Apple car. Since then, Hyundai Motor Group’s share price has skyrocketed.

Hyundai Motor Company said: “We are receiving requests for cooperation in the joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies, but it has not been decided at an early stage.”

On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that same day, “Kia has contacted potential partners for the assembly and production of Apple automobiles at a plant in Georgia, USA.” A source familiar with the matter said that Kia and Apple’s proposal for autonomous electric vehicle cooperation includes billions of dollars of investment, but negotiations have not yet been completed.

According to WSJ, Hyundai Motor Company is discussing a plan to start producing Apple cars from 2024 starting in 2024 by investing $ 3 billion (approximately 3.4 trillion won) in negotiations with Apple. Up to 100,000 units can be assembled at the Kia Georgia plant in the first year of production, the source said.

However, WSJ said that Apple is not only discussing electric car production with Hyundai and Kia.

The previous day, Nippon Geizai Shimbun (Nikkei) summoned an official from an Apple spare parts supplier and reported that “Apple is in consultation with at least six companies in Japan.” Apple did not answer any questions about this. These six companies are the major Japanese automakers, including Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and Subaru.