Apple has reportedly held talks with Hyundai about producing a car along with a custom battery solution. However, a production vehicle may be at least half a decade away.
A report from Korea Economic Daily suggests that Apple is trying to hammer out a deal with Hyundai Motor Group to manufacture its own car---Silicon Valley's worst-kept secret---as well as develop custom batteries for it.
Various analysts have suggested the idea which calls for Apple to commission one of the major automobile makers to manufacture its own vehicle. But this is the first time that the specific partner was named.
"No Decisions Have Been Made"
Hyundai has confirmed that it held a discussion with Apple, saying in a statement to CNBC that "nothing has been decided" as of yet. "We understand that Apple is in discussion with a variety of global automakers, including Hyundai Motor," reads the statement. "As the discussion is at its early stage, nothing has been decided."
Interestingly, Hyundai quickly updated the statement to remove the reference to other carmakers. The company then issued another update a few hours later to remove all mentions of Apple.
One can imagine that Apple wasn't too happy about Hyundai's statement and name dropping. Either way, the revised statement ended up reading:
We've been receiving requests for potential cooperation from various companies regarding the development of autonomous electric vehicles. No decisions have been made as discussions are in the early stage.
Project Titan Is Back on Track
Project Titan---as the Apple Car project is being referred to internally---has been stuck in early development stage since at least 2014. Apple was first rumored to be creating its own car before the project reportedly got refocused after Apple realized that building cars en masse is a money pit.
And now, the latest rumors suggest Project Titan is back on track as Apple has allegedly made the definitive decision to build electric vehicles (recent job listings strongly suggest that Project Titan has ramped up hiring in recent months).
That said, however, the jury is still out as to when Apple-branded customer vehicles may start to roll off the assembly lines. In December 2020, supply-chain publication DigiTimes said Apple was working with TSMC on a self-driving car chip. The semiconductor foundry has been churning out Apple's custom chips iPhones, iPads, and Macs for years now.
Reuters thinks Apple may be launching its first electric car in 2024 based on breakthrough battery technology said to increase range and reduce production cost significantly.
Bloomberg disagrees, claiming that Project Titan is currently at an early stage of development and "nowhere near production stage". Because of the work-from-home restrictions and limited office time, an Apple car won't debut for another five to seven years, according to Bloomberg's sources familiar with Project Titan.
Custom Software, Sensors, and Chips
The Cupertino company has reportedly assigned a bunch of engineers to the project, including former Tesla VP of interior design Steve MacManus, former Tesla VP Michael Schwekutsch, self-driving safety expert and ex-Waymo employee Jaime Waydo, former BMW, Tesla and Waymo vehicle engineer Jonathan Sive, and Stuart Bowers, Tesla's former VP.
The report adds that Apple will eventually release a car that will compete with vehicles from Tesla, Mercedes Benz, Chevrolet, and others. Apple's key differentiator will be its own autonomous driving system based on custom software, sensors, and chips.
For what it's worth, Bloomberg cautions that Apple could ultimately refocus the project all over again should Tim Cook and co. come to the realization that building the necessary production facilities to cut metal and assemble cars would come with enormous costs.