Kia will lead Apple Car project work under Hyundai Motor, report says

Increasingly, it seems like the Apple Car is far from dead. Rather, it continues to find new life in a number of reports connecting Korean automaker Hyundai Motor to the project in a potential upcoming partnership announcement. However, it may not be the Hyundai brand that works on the Apple Car, but rather Kia.

A report from Reuters, via Korean publication Edaily, said Hyundai Motor, the parent automaker of Hyundai and Kia, will task the Kia division with Apple Car work. The brand also said on Wednesday it’s looking at cooperation with foreign firms surrounding self-driving and electric vehicles. Kia made no mention of Apple, though the comment follows the reported connections to the tech giant. Kia did not immediately return Roadshow’s request for comment, nor did Apple. Hyundai in the past declined to comment on the speculation surrounding work on an Apple Car.

Earlier this month, various reports pegged the Apple Car as alive and well inside the tech company and said we could see a final vehicle in 2024 at the earliest. A separate report said the company may show a prototype of the vehicle next year. Interestingly, one of the reports last month also named Kia’s factory in Georgia as the rumored home for Apple Car production, which coincides with news of Kia’s possible involvement in the latest round of rumors.

Reportedly, Apple is hard at work on breakthrough EV battery technology and automated driving systems to help usher in a game changing car. Choosing an established automaker to handle final production seems simple, since Apple has zero history of building cars. If you need an example of how difficult it is to build cars, take a look at Tesla’s relatively short history in the business.

We’ll have to wait and see if this Kia-Apple connection comes to life, so for now, continue shaking a little bit of salt with these rumors.

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