Apple to collaborate with Hyundai on its first electric car model

In his latest TF Securities investor note, seen by MacRumors, Kuo corroborates recent reports of a potential ‌Apple Car‌ partnership with Hyundai and says that he believes Apple's first vehicle chassis will be based on Hyundai's E-GMP battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform.

Report informs referring to Macrumors.

Announced in December, the E-GMP uses up to two motors, five-link rear suspension, an integrated drive axle, battery cells that can provide range over 500km on a full charge, and can be charged up to 80% within 18 minutes through high-speed charging. A high-performance model based on E-GMP can accelerate from 0-60 miles per hour in less than 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 160 miles (257 km) per hour. Hyundai plans to sell 1 million BEV units worldwide by 2025.

Apple's deep collaboration with current automakers (Hyundai Group, GM, and PSA) who have extensive development, production, and qualification experience will significantly shorten the ‌Apple Car‌ development time and create a time-to-market advantage. We believe that Apple will leverage current automakers' resources and focus on self-driving hardware and software, semiconductors, battery-related technologies, form factor and internal space designs, innovative user experience, and the integration with Apple's existing ecosystem.

According to Kuo's prediction, Hyundai Mobis will be in charge of some ‌Apple Car‌ components' design and production. Hyundai Group affiliate Kia will provide the U.S. production line for Apple Cars. However, Kuo predicts that Apple may struggle to launch the ‌Apple Car‌ in 2025 because of the more complicated development time and supply chain management involved.

We predict that Apple will launch the ‌Apple Car‌ in 2025 at the earliest. The new iPhone takes about 18–24 months from initial specification definition to mass production based on experience. Given the longer development time, higher validation requirements, more complicated supply chain management, and very different sales/after-sales service channels for the automobiles, we believe that Apple, which lacks car building experience, is already on a tight schedule if it wants to launch the ‌Apple Car‌ in 2025.

Kuo suggests Apple will market the vehicle as a "very high-end" model, or "significantly higher" than a standard electric vehicle, which will benefit the automaker partners. Foxconn, which is already developing electric vehicle parts, will not be involved in ‌Apple Car‌ assembly or casing orders, predicts Kuo.