Shares of Korean automaker Kia Motors surged to a two-decade high after a major South Korean newspaper reported that Apple will invest $3.6 billion in Kia as part of a deal to build Apple cars in Kia’s U.S. factory in Georgia in 2024.
Apple’s car-development work is still at an early stage, and the company will take at least half a decade to launch an autonomous EV, people with knowledge of the efforts have told Bloomberg News.
John Rosevear for The Motley Fool:
The paper, Seoul-based Dong-A Ilbo, reported that Kia and Apple are close to a deal under which Kia will build Apple’s long-rumored electric car in its factory in West Point, Georgia. The initial production target is 100,000 vehicles per year starting in 2024, according to the report, with the potential to expand to a maximum of 400,000 per year.
It’s possible that the Apple car will be based on the E-GMP electric-vehicle architecture developed by Kia’s corporate sibling Hyundai. While the reported production volumes suggest an upscale but not luxury-level price target (in line with Apple’s strategy around its other consumer devices), it’s not yet clear whether Kia’s Georgia factory will be manufacturing cars for global export or just for the United States.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, Kia will be the Foxconn of electric vehicles.
It will have one door, and you steer with a touchscreen.
But it will be quick and operate very smoothly, providing great user feedback and most importantly it will never crash.
Its seems the 1st version is going to be a driverless cargo/taxi pool type autonomous car.
So like driverless Uber? I could see how that would work. And spread unemployment. 🙁
I understand that most workers who had been making buggy whips found new jobs in industries that were still viable.
Makes me laugh out loud. Ted Cook is nothing but a two faced climate fake, maybe the worse of them all. This FAKE touts climate change and now decides to take their billions and start ramping up making cars by the tens and tens of thousands. No doubt, this FAKE will find a way to call every factory and every car ‘climate neutral’. That is how they play the game. This factory will ship in billions of tons of all kind of gear and processed metals and batteries and paints and tires and will need workers driving their 4 ton pickups to get to one hour to work and one hour to home and on and on. All of this for a cool app driven piece of junk that everyone will say using their Numbers spreadsheets and Keynote presentations HAS ZERO AFFECT ON THE CLIMATE AND HAS ZERO CARBON EMISSIONS. This is the lying assdog, progressive tweak world we live in today.
Feeling better now?
‘Ted’ Cook probably is as fake as your outrage, whereas’Tim’ Cook is most definitely at the helm of a company putting its money where it counts – at the head of the race to save the planet. Ironic that you seem to be in denial of the fact that every car maker the world over is ‘going electric’ at the same time. Are they all fake too?
Also interesting is your apparent ignorance that Apple could and would be sanctioned if public statements about their renewable energy production and use, were found to be false. You however are free to vent in true naysayer negativity mode and face nothing but ridicule.
In the real world, Apple is “skating to where the puck will be”[Steve Jobs™️] whilst you circle the bowl in denial.
”circle the bowl of denial”! Thats good! 😄 There are certain porceline gadgets with circling water very fitting for those denials.
And it will probably be powered with Samsung lithium batteries just like my ebike.
Too bad they didn’t take their billions and build their own factory in secrecy instead of depending on low budget auto makers to make their premium car. I’d have a hard time spending Tesla money on an Apple car built by either Kia or Hyundai…they’re the GM of South Korea. It’s already obvious they can’t even keep a secret, that’s not a good first step.
So do tell how you build a factory “in secret” with all the satellite surveillance, Google and Apple maps, zoning rules, finance regulations and all?
And why can’t Apple contract specify a superior product just like they do with Foxconn who build MacBooks and zero quality trash computers – in the same factories?
Naysayers gotta be heard I guess.
By using a ‘dummy company or consortium’ like they do sometimes when they purchase other businesses.
Build a car factory in secret?? What planet are you from (clearly not Earth). Do you know how impossible it would be to build a ‘secret factory’ capable of producing up to 400K units p.a? On a scale of 1 – 10 it would be 10.
The steering wheel will double as a “click wheel” (from the iPod) . . . cars swerving down the street are just trying to navigate the dashboard menu . . . a honk signifies they made a selection.