After some recent noise about a potential Apple-Hyundai collaboration over the Apple Car, things are looking a little less positive. Executives at the automaker are divided on the subject, reducing the likelihood of a deal.
Hyundai and Apple Spoke About Car in 2018
There was news earlier this month about a Hyundai-made Apple Car, but no update was given during the firm’s earnings cool on Tuesday. One executive told Reuters:
We are agonizing over how to do it, whether it is good to do it or not. We are not a company which manufactures cars for others. It is not like working with Apple would always produce great results.
It has also emerged that Hyundai and Apple started discussing collaborating in 2018. Project Titan, the internal codename for the Apple Car project, was then headed by Alexander Hitzinger, who has since left for Volkswagen. Furthermore, the South Korean firm remains cautious about working with outsiders. “It is really difficult (for Hyundai) to open up,” a source told the news agency. Indeed, some Hyundai executives might have to be replaced. “Apple is the boss. They do their marketing, they do their products, they do their brand. Hyundai is also the boss. That does not really work.”
Another source explained that Apple would likely want to source key components from a variety of providers. Hyundai, or perhaps Kia, would then be responsible for the final assembly. Apple “would want this to be in the United States.”
I recently bought a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and I find it rather like Apple with its tech features, I could see the two companies working together.