Apple And Hyundai Partnership May Happen, Concept Car May Come In 2022

The rumors about the Apple car refuse to die, and the latest rumor suggests that the tech giant is close to setting up a deal with Hyundai to get the vehicle in production. The partnership could be complete by March, and the car would enter production in 2024, according to Reuters citing South Korean newspaper Korea IT News. 

Neither company is commenting on the new rumor, but the info generally fits with a recent report about Hyundai and Apple partnering. At the time, negotiations were still in their early stages. Hyundai confirmed that the talks were underway, though.

Korea IT News initially reported that Hyundai and Apple intended to either build the new car at the Kia factory in Georgia or create a new factory in the US with a capacity of 400,000 vehicles per year, with around 100,000 of them being from this joint venture. However, the paper later removed this info from its story, according to Reuters, suggesting that it might be too soon to make these assertions.

There has been a flurry of new rumors about the Apple car recently. An early report made the wild claim about the model possible debuting this year. Although, Reuters says a preview of the vehicle could go on display in 2022, so maybe there's a little substance to this earlier info.

Later, there was info indicating Apple had hired former top Tesla engineers for the project. However, this report claimed the model was five to seven years away – a far longer timeframe than the other rumors so far.

There's very little concrete info about what the Apple car might be. It's far likely an EV, since a combustion engine doesn't fit with what it currently means to be a cutting-edge vehicle. Advanced software seems mandatory, too, to match customer expectations.