- Some Hyundai staff members are wary of collaborating with Apple to manufacture electric vehicles, Reuters reports.
- Hyundai confirmed in early January it was at an early stage with Apple over an electric car.
- “We are not a company that manufactures cars for others,” one executive said.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Drivers of South Korean car giant Hyundai are divided over whether the company should partner with Apple to make an electric vehicle, according to a Reuters report.
Hyundai admitted in early January that it was in an early stage of a discussion over the manufacture of an electric car with Apple. However, some executives are cautious about becoming a contract maker for the U.S. technology giant, one manager familiar with internal discussions told Reuters.
“We are not a company that makes cars for others,” they said. “It’s not like always getting good results with Apple.”
Apple uses contract makers for other products: Foxconn, a Taiwanese company, makes its iPhones, for example.
South Korean media reported on January 10 that Hyundai and Apple were planning to sign an agreement by March 2021, make a “beta” version of an Apple electric vehicle in 2022 and possibly in 2024 with the to start full-scale production.
Apple has never acknowledged talks with Hyundai and declined to comment to Reuters on the latest report.
Hyundai, which has extra production capability, did not give an update on talks with Apple during an earnings call on Tuesday in which it achieved its best quarterly profit in three years. Insider asked Hyundai for comment.
People close to the discussions told Reuters that if an agreement had been reached, Hyundai or Kia – owned by Hyundai Motor Co Group – would manufacture the electric cars designed, sold and branded by Apple.
Kia, not Hyundai, can finally build the cars
Another Hyundai executive told Reuters that “technology companies like Google and Apple want us to be like Foxconn (the maker of the contract).
“A collaboration could initially help boost the brand image of Hyundai or Kia. But in the medium or longer term, we will only supply the shells for the cars, and Apple will do the brains.”
Hyundai Motor Co Group has “provisionally decided” that it wants Kia, not Hyundai, to work with Apple if an agreement continues, he said.
It is said: “The Group is concerned that the Hyundai brand would only become Apple’s contract maker, which would not help Hyundai in its attempt to build a more premium image with its Genesis brand.”
The Genesis brand, which includes the recently released Genesis G90 sedan, consists of Hyundai’s most luxurious cars.
The person said that Kia has extra manufacturing capability at its factory in Georgia, in the USA.