Every reporter: Dong Tianyi Every editor: Sun Lei
html On February 3, according to the "Korea East Asia Daily" report, Apple plans to invest 4 trillion won (approximately RMB 23.2 billion) in Kia Motors to develop electric vehicles. cooperation in the field. According to reports, the two parties may sign a relevant agreement on February 17 and plan to launch Apple brand electric vehicles in 2024.
Image source: Visual China
Affected by this news, the share price of Korean stock Kia Motors (KS: 000270) rose by 14.50% during the session, reaching the highest level since 1997. As of the press release of the "Main Economic News" reporter, Kia Motors' stock price was reported at 97,700 won per share, an increase of 9.65%, and the company's latest market value rose to 36,117.88 billion won.
reported that if the cooperation between Kia Motors and Apple proceeds smoothly, Kia Motors plans to use the factory in Georgia, the United States, as the Apple car production base in mid2, with an initial annual delivery volume of 100,000 vehicles. . Public information from
shows that the factory was built 11 years ago and covers a total area of approximately 261,200 square meters. It has a complete body stamping, painting workshop and assembly line, and its current annual production capacity is approximately 340,000 vehicles.
In addition, there are reports that Apple has put forward stocking requirements to auto parts companies such as Heda, Bizlian-KY, Heqin, and Tomita at the end of last year, and included relevant companies in the first batch of supply chains. According to reports, the supply chain is preparing to increase the production of apple auto parts as early as the second quarter of next year, which also means that apple cars are "accelerating."
"Given that the number of parts for electric vehicles is 40 to 50 times that of smartphones, it is believed that apple will rely on the resources of existing automakers and outsource component manufacturing and assembly to traditional automakers, while apple Focusing on autonomous driving, battery technology, product design, etc.," Tianfeng Securities analyst Guo Mingchi said.
Kia may build Apple car
In fact, many car companies have had "scandals" with Apple . In January this year, the "Korea Economic Daily" revealed that , apple, and Hyundai Motor were in talks to jointly develop electric vehicles and jointly develop battery technology. After the news was released, Hyundai Motor's stock price rose 17.2%.
However, the report also stated that due to differences between Hyundai Motor Company executives on potential cooperation with Apple, some people within Hyundai Motor expressed concerns about becoming a contract manufacturer of Apple. Insiders said that Hyundai Group is worried that the brand can only become a contract manufacturer for Apple, which runs counter to Hyundai's plan to create a high-end image with the Genesis brand.
After encountering obstacles in cooperation with Hyundai Motor, Apple turned its attention to its Kia Motors. Some analysts believe that Hyundai Motor, which has a better brand, does not need to use apple cars as its main business, but for Kia Motors, this will be a very meaningful undertaking, and apple will also receive the same level of technical support.
Picture source: Daily Economic News data map
The report stated that if the cooperation between Kia Motors and Apple can be smoothly promoted, in terms of vehicle technology, Apple's electric vehicles may adopt Hyundai's E-GMP electric vehicles. It is built on a platform, with Hyundai Mobis providing the design and production of some parts.
In addition, a good supply chain system will also become an additional advantage of Kia Motors. Public information shows that South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation’s first power battery factory in the United States is located in Georgia. It is reported that the factory has an investment of US$903 million, an annual production capacity of 9.8GWh, and is expected to start production in early 2022. Its second factory also started construction in July last year and plans to start battery production in 2023.
"In-depth cooperation between Apple and car manufacturers with rich development, production and verification experience will significantly shorten the development time of Apple cars and create time-to-market advantages." Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple may focus on autonomous driving software and hardware In order to integrate the existing ecology of , apple , semiconductors, and battery-related technologies.
"If the cooperation model between Apple and Kia goes well, it is expected that Apple will cooperate with Apple and Peugeot Citroën Group in the future to develop other Apple car models or enter other markets." Guo Mingchi said.
was questioned by analysts
Although reports said that apple cars may be launched in 2024, in fact there is still some way to go before mass production of apple cars is achieved.
"We predicted in our previous report that apple cars would be launched in 2023~2025. However, our latest survey shows that the current development schedule of apple cars is not clear." Ming-Chi Kuo said, If the Apple car begins development this year and all goes well, it will be launched as early as 2025~2027. However, due to changes in the electric vehicle and autonomous driving markets and the high-quality standards of Apple , the launch time of Apple cars may be delayed.
Picture source: Photo by reporter Zhang Jian (data map)
It is worth mentioning that the current Apple car manufacturing project is still in the "recruitment" stage, which also makes some people believe that the Apple car's mass production plan may will be delayed. It is understood that at the beginning of this year, Apple announced that it was negotiating cooperation with Canoo, a California electric vehicle startup, and opened 300 automotive-related recruitment positions. Manfred Harre, the former vice president of chassis development of Porsche , has just joined apple a few days ago.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, based on past experience, the new iPhone will take about 18 to 24 months from initial specification definition to mass production, taking into account the longer development time of the car, higher verification specifications, more complex supply chain management and completely different Sales and after-sales service system, Apple , which lacks experience in car manufacturing, is already very pressed for time.
In addition, in the face of the market's high expectations for apple cars, Guo Mingchi said: "If apple cars want to succeed in the future, the key success factors are big data and AI, not hardware." In Guo Mingchi's view , when Apple cars are launched, current self-driving car brands will have at least five years of big data accumulation, and Apple , as a rising star, may not be able to overcome this gap.
"The market has high hopes for apple cars. However, we still have to remind investors that although apple companies have various competitive advantages, they are not always able to stand out in new businesses." Ming-Chi Kuo said.
Daily Economic News
