SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor and Apple Inc. plan to sign a partnership agreement with autonomous electric cars by March and begin production around 2024 in the United States, local newspaper Korea IT News reported on Sunday.
The report follows a statement made Friday by Hyundai Motor, according to which it was in early talks with Apple, after another local media stated that the companies intend to launch an electric car with automatic driving in 2027, sending Hyundai shares with almost 20 %.
Hyundai Motor declined to comment on the report on Sunday and reiterated comments on Friday that it had received requests for potential cooperation from various companies for the development of autonomous electric vehicles.
Apple had no immediate comment.
An updated version of the IT news report removed details, including the location and production capacity and the timeframe for signing the agreement and launching the pilot vehicles.
In the previous version, the companies planned to build the cars at the Kia Motors plant in Georgia or invest together in a new plant in the United States to produce 100,000 vehicles by 2024. The full annual capacity of the proposed plant would be 400,000 vehicles. .
Kia Motors is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor.
The report also said that Hyundai and Apple plan to launch a “beta version” of Apple cars next year.
Reuters reported last month that Apple is moving forward with autonomous car technology and aims to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own battery technology discovered as early as 2024.
Report by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Barbara Lewis