Malcolm Owen
South Korean carmaker Hyundai and affiliate Kia have declared they are no longer in negotiations with Apple to manufacture the rumored Apple Car.
Following a flurry of reports about Apple's talks with Hyundai and Kia about the 'Apple Car,' Hyundai has publicly admitted it's no longer in discussions with the iPhone maker about the project.
In a regulatory filing, Hyundai and Kia said the two firms had received requests from multiple outfits about self-driving electric car development, but no decision had been made as the talks were at the early stages. Bloomberg reports Hyundai's shares dropped 8.4% after the filing, and Kia fell 14%.
The two car producers were reported in January to be in discussions with Apple about the 'Apple Car,' talks Hyundai unusually confirmed before backing away from the statement. Apple was reportedly upset with the public disclosure.
On Friday, the discussions between the companies were paused, with internal disagreements with Hyundai having the potential to derail plans altogether.
While the talks were occurring, there was the suggestion Hyundai would bring production to the United States, operating a factory in Georgia controlled by Kia with a view to producing 100,000 cars by 2024. It could have also involved an investment of 4 trillion won (about $3.6 billion) from Apple to make the project a reality.
Production duties could have been handed over to Kia completely, as Hyundai was concerned its brand reputation would be damaged by becoming an assembler for other car companies instead of working on its own products. Executives were allegedly "agonizing" over the decision.
Hyundai and Kia weren't the only companies Apple was talking to about the "Apple Car," as the iPhone maker was allegedly speaking to at least six Japanese automakers at the same time.
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47 Comments
Certainly nice to see the zero tolerance of the news leak by their chosen partners... regardless whom they choose to use moving forward i would def wish they do like Tesla and do it all themselves even if it means further delays. This way the whole product is truly apple as in an apple car. Just how I see it.
Never mind what is the reason, bur I prefer better no wedding, than wedding and after the first year divorce.
Just like Apple talking to Verizon about getting the iPhone prior to 2007 with what I believe was a maneuver to get AT&T to offer more favorable terms*, this seems like the same tactic.
* I never believed Apple would bring a CDMA over a GSM iPhone to market first.
So much for going to the Apple website and clicking on the AppleCar product section. I'm sure Elon Musk is laughing harder now than when he became the richest man on the planet. It's already game over for Apple when it comes to EV sales. I can understand why Wall Street is going to put most of its money into Tesla rather than Apple. Big investors are far more excited over EVs than smartphones because share gains will be much higher for Tesla than Apple. EVs have replaced cloud storage as the low-hanging fruit for making unlimited revenue. Apple has now missed out on both. For every Tesla Model S Plaid Plus sold, Apple will have to sell 100 iPhone 13 Pro Max units. Apple shareholders are not going to be happy with that thought. Tesla has now secured the necessary investor mindshare to permanently have a P/E of 1400. Apple will struggle to hold a P/E of 40. Musk wins again as the CEO with the Midas Touch.