APPLE may be building its long-rumoured electric car with Hyundai.

The South Korea car giant seemingly teased the partnership – before quickly scrubbing all mention of a deal.

This is what Apple's self-driving car could look like when it enters production

2

This is what Apple’s self-driving car could look like when it enters productionCredit: LetsGoDigital / ConceptCreator

Late last year, a Reuters report claimed that Apple was working on an all-electric car.

The vehicle has been rumoured for years, but it was unclear whether Apple had abandoned the project.

Now experts think Apple is still on track to launch a vehicle in the future.

Adding fuel to the fire was a Hyundai statement that read: “Apple and Hyundai are in discussions ut as it is early stage, nothing has been decided.”

An Apple fan put together the designs and posted them to YouTube

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An Apple fan put together the designs and posted them to YouTubeCredit: LetsGoDigital / ConceptCreator

It came in response to reports on South Korea’s Economic Daily that the firms were talking.

However, a later statement from Hyundai removed references to Apple, claiming that it had received “requests for cooperation on joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies”.

Long-time Apple expert Ming-Chi Kuo recently warned that the car is unlikely to arrive before 2028, in an investor note seen by 9to5Mac.

However, he added that if everything goes smoothly, it’s possible that the car could launch between 2025 and 2027.

Sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters that the car, known as Project Titan, could be completed as soon as 2024.

Project Titan, which has seen an ill-fated start since it was first launched in 2014, has gone through a number of iterations as Apple looked to what the future of driver-less passenger cars could look like.

Apple attempted to design its own vehicle when the project first launch, before scrapping that idea to focus on software and battery building instead.

In 2018, when a long-time Apple veteran Doug Field, who briefly worked at Tesla, returned to the project, he laid off 190 people from the project team the following year.

Apple has since taken steps to build a vehicle for consumers, sources told Reuters.

Although the plans have not been public just yet, the sources say the tech giant has been wanting to build a personal vehicle to rival other companies. 

Some say the coronavirus pandemic has created significant delays for Apple, which could push the production of such a driverless vehicle into 2025 or even after.

One source told Reuters that the car would have a new battery that’s “next level…like the first time you saw the iPhone”.

ConceptCreator, who also goes by Jermaine online, worked with Dutch tech site Let’sGoDigital to create the images in this article.

Apple ‘aiming to launch self-driving CAR in 2024 with breakthrough battery technology’

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk

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