Apple Car: After Hyundai Fallout, Rumors Of Renault Partnership Appear

The Apple Inc. AAPL Car project continues to heat the market, although not directly the Apple stock. For some time, the Cupertino company has been working on a fully autonomous electric car, but it doesn’t seem to have found the right partner among car manufacturers so far.

Apple-Hyundai Deal Is Off:  Until a few days ago, the agreement with Hyundai Motor Company Ltd. HYMTF seemed like a done deal. The South Korean company - after the first successful approaches last January - was ready to make the Kia plant in West Point (Georgia) available to Apple, but some days ago the process came to a screeching halt, apparently due to internal disagreements within the Hyundai board.

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Speculations On Renault: However, Apple has plenty of options. With the Hyundai-Kia hypothesis fading out, a possible partnership with Renault ADR RNLSY seems to be gaining ground, with the French automaker being an ally of other major Asian car manufacturers such as Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. NSANY and Mitsubishi. Apple's goal would be to strike an agreement with an Asian company, probably to intercept the (potential) endless electric car market in the continent.

Renault Stock On The Rise: After rumors of a possible deal with Renault - the automaker which manufactures Zoe, one of the best-selling electric cars in the world -   the French automaker's shares spiked yesterday, rising again above $40, which Renault hadn’t reached since December 2019. However, shared dropped  2% today, perhaps due to a lack of confirmation or just for some profit-taking.

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Time Until 2024: "We are receiving several requests for cooperation in the joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies, but they are at an early stage and nothing has been decided," Hyundai executives said in a note in which they dismissed the deal with Apple. In conclusion, the Apple Car will have to wait for now: there is time until 2024, which is the expected release date.

This article originally appeared on Financialounge.com and was translated from Italian to English. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

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