SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor and Apple Inc plan to sign a partnership agreement on autonomous electric cars by March and start production around 2024 in the United States, the local newspaper Korea IT News reported on Sunday.
The report follows a statement on Friday from Hyundai Motor that it was in initial negotiations with Apple after another local media said the companies intended to launch an autonomous electric car in 2027, raising Hyundai’s shares by almost 20% .
Hyundai Motor declined to comment on the report on Sunday, and reiterated Friday’s comments that it received requests for potential cooperation from several companies in the development of autonomous EVs.
Apple did not immediately comment.
An updated version of the IT news report removed details, including production location and capacity, and the deadline for signing the contract and launching the pilot vehicles.
The previous version said that companies planned to build the cars at the Kia Motors plant in Georgia, or to jointly invest in a new plant in the United States to produce 100,000 vehicles by 2024. The total annual capacity of the proposed plant would be 400,000 vehicles .
Kia Motors is an affiliate of Hyundai Motor.
The report also said that Hyundai and Apple plan to launch a “beta version” of Apple cars next year.
Reuters reported last month that Apple was moving ahead with autonomous car technology and intended to produce a passenger car that could include its own innovative battery technology as early as 2024.
Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Barbara Lewis