These days, the automobile industry is bustling with Apple cars. Apple is in contact with a number of finished car brands for its electric car manufacturing business, including the domestic Hyundai Motor Group. When the possibility of cooperation with the Hyundai Motor Group was raised, the stock price rose sharply at one time.
However, recently, the Hyundai Motor Group officially announced that it is not conducting discussions with Apple for the development of autonomous vehicles. This fact was further clarified through public announcement. Today’s AutoPost Issue Plus looks at the Apple car crisis.
Written Jinwoong Lee Editor
Apple to Hyundai Motor Group
Apple car production cooperation proposal
Let’s take a look at the diary of discussions on EV cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group and Apple. On January 18, a domestic media reported that Apple had offered Hyundai Motor Company to cooperate in producing Apple cars. According to reports, the review has already been completed and only the home of Chairman Eui-sun Eui-sun remains.
However, through the Financial Supervisory Service’s Electronic Disclosure System (DART), Hyundai Motor Company said,’We are receiving a lot of requests for cooperation in joint development related to electric vehicles from a number of companies, but it has not been decided in an early stage.’ I will re-disclose it.’ In other words, the collaboration is not confirmed. Apple is also in contact with a number of automotive companies, and Hyundai Motor Group is just one of them.
Apple car production
Kia is in charge
The Apple Car cooperation, which seemed to end with the happening, rose to the surface again. On January 19, the domestic media announced the news that Kia, not Hyundai Motor, had decided to take over the Apple car cooperation. The report was also quite specific that Apple car production would be produced at the Georgia plant in the US. When this fact was announced, stock prices of both Hyundai Motor and Kia soared significantly.
On January 15th, Kia announced its long-term strategy Plan S through a brand showcase. Kia President Song Ho-sung explained, “The new change of the Kia brand reflects the will to open up new horizons while satisfying the diverse needs of customers around the world through expansion of business areas.”
In addition, since Kia announced that it will expand its scope to various mobility businesses including IT without being constrained by the automobile business, there were fewer opinions that the Apple Car cooperation would fit well with Kia’s future strategic purpose. There is also an opinion that it has a positive effect on raising the brand value, which is relatively low compared to Hyundai.
On January 20, Kia announced that it is considering cooperation with a number of foreign companies related to the self-driving electric vehicle business. I didn’t call it Apple, but I didn’t actively deny it.
Hunger and apple
4 trillion won investment contract conclusion plan
Until the beginning of this month, domestic and foreign reports related to the cooperation between the two companies were pouring out. On the 2nd, Apple expert Gwi Ming-chi, a researcher at Tenping International Securities in Taiwan, released a report stating that “the first Apple car will be based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle platform E-GMP”. The next day, Kia and Apple made a 4 It was reported that it was planning to sign a trillion won investment contract.
Foreign media also reported related content, CNBC said, “Hyundai and Apple are in the final stages of an agreement for Apple car collaboration”, and WSJ said, “Kia is discussing with potential investors to take over the assembly and production of the Apple car. We will produce Apple cars from 2024.”
Hyundai Motor Group and Apple
Suspension of Apple Car consultation
On the 5th, Bloomberg said, “Hyundai Motor and Apple have recently temporarily suspended negotiations on the production of Apple cars. The fact that the Hyundai Motor Group indirectly admitted this fact to the Korean media has made Apple uncomfortable. Told.
After that, on the 8th, Hyundai Motor Company also announced through DART that “there is not conducting discussions on the development of autonomous vehicles with Apple.” It’s been a month since rumors related to the apple car came to the surface. Since then, Hyundai Motor Group-related stocks have been declining by around 10%, and about 10 trillion won in market capitalization has disappeared.
Apple’s mystic principles
Because Hyundai Motor Woke
Now, unlike a month ago, the situation has been completely reversed. Although it is not clear why, it is generally believed that the breakdown of Apple’s mystical principles, as mentioned briefly earlier, is because it touched Apple’s planting.
Apple is known for thoroughly hiding content related to product development. They are also extremely reluctant to be known to collaborate with any company, and breaking confidentiality provisions can result in hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. The strategic alliance with global companies should be conducted in secret under the water until the negotiations are completed, but when Hyundai Motor indirectly admitted to the Apple Car collaboration, Apple would have been burdened.
Apple Cars, too, have kept their development projects secret for years, and in the process they have over-controlled relationships with suppliers. One expert said, “In the first place, media reports from Korea through Hyundai Motor would have been a problem, and when the news came out, Hyundai had to seal well, but there is a side that responded inadequately at the beginning.”
He said, “After going up and down in foreign media for a month, I eventually denied myself and damaged the corporate image,” he said. “It will have an impact on working with global companies in the future.” For reference, Apple has never made any official reports even in a world bustling situation.
Apple is virtually
I want a subcontract level relationship
According to foreign reports, Apple wants a subcontractor-level relationship in the Apple car-related business. Because of this, it is also believed that the Apple Car collaboration was stopped. Apple develops the product, but the production is consigned to Foxconn in Taiwan.
Apple Cars are also very difficult to build their own production lines as Apple is not a brand that originally ran the automobile business. One of the reasons for the collaboration is for the consignment production of Apple cars to a finished car brand that has a factory.
However, horses are commissioned production, which is virtually a subcontractor. When Hyundai Motors consigns manufacturing Apple cars, the initiative is taken away by Apple, making it impossible to use power. As Hyundai Motor Company is also a large global brand and has the highest level of technology related to automobiles, there is no hope of becoming a subcontractor of Apple.
In addition, it is difficult to secure profitability through commissioned production. For consignment production, a separate line has to be installed and all technology required for production has to be mobilized, while the margin is small, about 1~2%. In addition, there is no guarantee that Apple cars will succeed because it is a completely different field from the electronic device, which is a business field. For Hyundai Motors, there are many risks.
Hyundai Motor Company has invested trillions of won to dominate the future car market for several years. It has made a strategic investment worth hundreds of billions of won each in Limac, a high-performance electric vehicle company, and canoes with skateboard platform technology that inserts key parts of electric vehicles such as motors and batteries into standardized modules. In addition, it invested 2.4 trillion won to establish a joint venture between Aptiv, an autonomous driving company in the United States, and an autonomous driving joint venture Motal, and acquired an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics, the world’s number one robot company, for about KRW 1 trillion.
As such, it was not necessary to collaborate with Apple because it has secured technology through enormous investments over the years and declared this year the first year of electrification. In addition, the Hyundai Motor Group also has the basic principle that there must be something to be gained when collaborating, but Apple does not try to easily share advanced technologies in various fields such as software or its own operating system. The dreams of each other are different.
Apple Car Partner
To be announced during the first half
There is a possibility of reconciliation with Hyundai Motor Company
Recently, Apple Insider, a US IT media outlet, quoted a report from investment bank Weedbush and reported that Apple is expected to officially announce an Apple car maker within this year. The report analyzed that it is more than 85% likely that Apple will officially announce a partnership agreement with an electric vehicle partner within the next three to six months.
Apple is also discussing Apple car production with other global companies besides the Hyundai Motor Group. At least six companies, including Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi, are discussing cooperation in Japan, and GM and PSA Group are also discussing Apple Car collaboration.
However, Hyundai Motor Group and Volkswagen were selected as strong candidates for Apple Insider. In other words, the possibility of cooperation with the Hyundai Motor Group was raised again. The report explained that although negotiations between Apple and the Hyundai Motor Group have been temporarily suspended, E-GMP, an EV-only platform, will still be a good option for Apple.
In addition, as GM and Tesla are very advanced in autonomous driving technology in the US, it is difficult to partner with Hyundai Motor Group as an alternative. In order to protect Apple’s secrecy, some said it could not rule out the possibility of continuing consultations under water, while making a public announcement to silence the controversy over cooperation. The topical Apple Car collaboration, who will you be with? It was Auto Post Issue Plus.
[email protected]