(Bloomberg) – Speculation that Apple Inc. a partner looking to develop its own electric vehicle is being swept by South Korea and Japan, where shares of major auto companies have climbed on reports of talks with the iPhone maker.
Kia Motors Corp. talks to potential partners about a plan to put together a car designed by Apple, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Separately, the Nikkei newspaper said Apple is in talks with at least six carmakers. The suspicion surrounding Apple’s mysterious project to design and sell its own car arose in December after a hiatus of several years, with Kia’s co-owner Hyundai Motor Co. as a potential partner.
The key question is how serious is Apple about Tesla Inc. and other manufacturers of electric vehicles, and whether he has determined that he needs an established manufacturer to be able to roll out his own product. The company in Cupertino, California, reportedly has a small team of engineers developing systems as well as designers, but with early development work, any rollout is unlikely to happen in another five years.
Read more: Apple’s self-driving electric car is at least half a decade away
Tatsuo Yoshida, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said Japanese automakers are usually too busy with their own development, manufacturing, sales and customer service to tackle a task such as working with Apple. Nissan Motor Co. of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. “however, do not have much work and are somewhat idle so they may be able to sign up,” he said.
Asked if they were approached, Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. said they could not comment, the Nikkei said. According to the report, Mitsubishi Motors said no contact was made with him and Nissan declined to comment. Subaru Corp. ‘s chief financial officer said on an income he heard nothing of an Apple car.
Kia shares rose 1.5% in Seoul, contributing to gains earlier this week in a local media report that Apple would win 4 trillion ($ 3.6 billion) as part of a collaboration with the carmaker to To make EVs. In December, Hyundai returned from a statement saying it was in talks with Apple.
Read more: How Apple could tackle $ 230 billion in luxury car market: Alex Webb
According to the Journal, an agreement between Apple and Kia will involve an investment of more than a million dollars and the meeting will take place in the state of Georgia. CNBC reported this week that Apple is close to concluding an agreement with Hyundai-Kia to build an autonomous EV in Kia’s US plant. No agreement has been reached, but they are tentatively planned to go into production in 2024, the news channel said.
A Kia representative declined to comment.
Hyundai has developed a new EV-dedicated platform and plans to build 23 EVs, starting with the Ioniq 5 in March in Europe, followed by a Kia model later this year. EVs manufactured on the platform can load up to 80% capacity within 18 minutes and add driving distance within just five kilometers to 100 kilometers. They have a top distance of 500 kilometers at a single charge. Hyundai aims to sell 1 million cars by 2025.
Read more: Why it’s so expensive to build an electric car: QuickTake
In Japan, the report fueled profits among automakers, which in turn strengthened the Topix benchmark, with Toyota Motor Corp, Mitsubishi Motors and Nissan rising. Mazda shares also rose 19%, the highest in 12 years, after the company increased its full-year operating income.
Among Japan’s automakers, Nissan probably has the right solution for a non-automaker that wants to enter the EV market. The Japanese carmaker has teamed up with French partner Renault SA to develop a common EV platform that can be used to develop different branded products for their global car manufacturing alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors.
Nidec Corp., a major Japanese supplier of electric motors, also wants to offer near-complete EV platforms. Jun Seki, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a recent interview that new entrants in the sector prefer to focus on the interior and styling of a vehicle.
Read more: A world’s best manufacturer of mini cars, who can beat Tesla
“Any new business entering the field of electric vehicles is an opportunity for us,” Seki said. “Our expectations of Apple are quite high. Apple is also our major customer in other areas. ”
(Updates stocks throughout.)
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
Sign up now to stay ahead of the most trusted business news source.
© 2021 Bloomberg LP