Apple and Hyundai About to Finalize Electric Car Deal: Report

According to Reuters, Cupertino, California based tech giant Apple Inc. and Korean automaker Hyundai Motor are all set to sign an agreement for the production of autonomous electric vehicles (EVs) in March.

The information comes from local Korean news publication Korea IT News, which published a comprehensive report on the matter earlier today, complete with quantitative details of the joint venture that were later retracted.

On Friday, January 8, an official statement from Hyundai Motor revealed that the carmaker was in early talks with Apple for the two companies to join forces and create a self-driving electric car, expected to go into mass-production in the U.S. by 2024.

Hyundai’s shares went up 20% following the statement, in which the veteran vehicle maker also noted that it had similar proposals from other companies as well.

Before a partial retraction, the source stated that the two companies plan to manufacture the fruit of their partnership at either the Kia Motors factory in Georgia, or build a new facility in the U.S. with a peak production capacity of 400,000 vehicles per annum that would pipe out at least 100,000 units by 2024.

So far, there have been conflicting reports regarding Apple’s autonomous electric car project (dubbed ‘Project Titan’). The company has said to have hired numerous Tesla engineers working all aspects of the upcoming electric car.

However, the general consensus at the time of this writing is that Apple’s first vehicular offering may be available as early as 2024, possibly featuring Apple’s own, proprietary battery technology.

But Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says a realistic timeline for an Apple car to debut is more around 2025-27 at the earliest.

Both Apple and Hyundai aim to launch a “beta version” of the long-awaited Apple car sometime next year.