Hyundai Motor Co. shares rose by more than 20% in trading in Seoul on Friday, after the South Korean carmaker confirmed that it is in talks with Apple Inc. to develop an electric car with automatic driving.
“Apple and Hyundai are under discussion, but as it is in its infancy, nothing has been decided,” Hyundai said in a statement.
That was enough to trigger 005380 from Hyundai,
the strongest intraday transaction gain of at least 1988.
The Korean news site Hankyung first reported Apple news, saying that Hyundai will manufacture the car designed by Apple and will develop batteries for it.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that it will take Apple AAPL,
at least five years to develop an autonomous car. Bloomberg also reported that a number of former Tesla Inc. TSLA,
directors were added to the project.
For years, Apple has been rumored to be working on a self-driving car and has gone back and forth between developing its own car and developing technology for itself. Last month, Reuters reported that Apple was again trying to develop a car, with a 2024 target date.
Shares of Apple rose more than 3% on Thursday and rose 69% in the past year, compared to a 7% increase in DIA Jones Industrial Media,
of which it is a component, in the last 12 months.