On-again, off-again Apple car is off … with Hyundai, Kia

Rumours that Hyundai and Kia would provide the manufacturing and automotive might to produce the first car for tech giant Apple have been sliced and diced.

The Korean car making giants released a regulatory explanation to the Korean Stock Exchange confirming there were no ongoing talks with Californian-based Apple.

“We are not having talks with Apple on developing autonomous vehicles,” part of the regulatory statement read, in turn killing off those pesky rumours that saw the share prices for Hyundai and sister brand Kia boom.

Reports last week suggested Kia was poised to ink a deal with Apple that would see a circa-$4.7 billion investment from Apple and see the influential and notoriously secretive tech giant utilise some of Hyundai Motor Group’s electric technology, including the E-GMP architecture that will underpin a family of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EVs.

“We are receiving requests for cooperation in joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies, but they are at early stage and nothing has been decided,” the stock exchange statement continued.

The brief announcement saw the share prices of each car maker plunge in response, although after a few hours they were still ahead of their respective prices before the Apple car rumours gained pace last month.

The Hyundai/Kia announcement adds to the mystery of the Apple car, which at one stage was (and still may be) known internally as Project Titan.

Since 2014 Apple has teased various details about producing an electric and autonomous car.

Combined with some coincidences and investigative work – including an FBI investigation – it has allowed Apple watchers and automotive industry reporters to piece together Apple’s plans to take on the car market.

Apple has at times had more than 1000 people working on its car project, some poached from experienced car makers with the company apparently trying to shortcut the notoriously long and expensive development processes with producing a car.

The latest big name engineer to reportedly be heading to Apple is Porsche VP of chassis development Dr. Manfred Harrer.

If true – it’s yet to be confirmed – it would give Apple access to the man who honed the suspension for the upcoming Porsche Taycan, the company’s first EV.

While the mooted Hyundai/Kia deal may be off – for now, at least – it seems Apple is still very keen about making electric and autonomous vehicles.

Given the recent tie-ups between tech giants and car companies – and the enormous cost of establishing automotive manufacturing facilities – there’s every chance Apple will be on the hunt for other options.

That will no doubt send a big ripple through manufacturers as diverse as Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Ford, General Motors and even Tesla, some of the many brands pouring tens of billions of dollars into EVs.

If anything it’s Tesla that has the most to lose; it has a stratospheric share price and has built so much of its reputation on tech and doing things differently – two things that Apple tends to do pretty well.