Apple Car handed off to Kia by Hyundai, could be made in US

Kia Sportage
Kia Sportage (Image credit: Kia)

What you need to know

  • A new report says Hyundai has arranged for its Kia brand to be in charge of Apple Car.
  • That could mean the production base is Kia's US plant in Georgia.

A new report from Korea says Hyundai has arranged internally to hand off the Apple Car project to Kia, possibly paving the way for production on US soil.

According to eDaily:

It is known that the Hyundai Motor Group (005380), which received a proposal from Apple for electric vehicle-related cooperation, has internally arranged that Kia ( Kia Motors (000270) ) is in charge of this project. If Kia decides to do this, the Apple car production base will be at Kia's Georgia plant in the US.

The report says discussions were had on Tuesday related to "Apple Car cooperation". According to the report, when Kia "confirms" this, the project will be carried out at the company's West Point plant in Georgia, US. The report notes that making the car in the United States would "facilitate cooperation with Apple". Whilst recent reports had tipped parent company Hyundai as a leading prospective partner, this new report says Hyundai doesn't think it is best suited to Apple Car "because of its strong will" to grow its own brand, and that it doesn't want to become an OEM factory for Apple cars. The report concludes by stating Hyundai "is still cautious" and that the move has not yet been decided.

The report follows "confirmation" from Hyundai it was in talks to produce an electric car in partnership with Apple, comments it quickly walked back a day later.

Reports from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo state Apple's Car is coming in 2025 at the earliest, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also reiterated that an Apple Car is at least five years away.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9

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