According to The Wall Street Journal, Kia is looking for a manufacturing partner to build Apple’s electric vehicles in Georgia.
Apple has reportedly been in talks with Hyundai, Kia’s parent company, about a partnership for the vehicles. Last week, Hyundai executives were reportedly “agonized” over the deal.
Apple and Hyundai were reportedly close to a deal this week, CNBC reported Wednesday. But Bloomberg reported Friday that Apple and Hyundai had “paused” their talks. It was not clear when they would resume, the report said.
Apple did not return a request for comment on Saturday.
If Kia finds a local partner to build an Apple car in Georgia, it’s unclear how involved Hyundai would be in making the vehicles.
“We’re not a company that makes cars for others. It’s not that working with Apple always leads to great results,” an unnamed Hyundai director told Reuters last week.
Read more: The ‘Apple Car’ would destroy Apple, and Tesla’s incredibly volatile history shows why
Apple has not publicly acknowledged that it is in talks with carmakers, but details have leaked to the press. According to Reuters, Hyundai and Apple have been talking about a deal since 2018. And the company is in talks with other manufacturers for smaller parts, the Journal reported.
‘Project Titan’, as the car is called internally, has been making news for years. The company hired thousands to work on the project, before reportedly scaling back the project and shutting down some of them in 2016. In recent years, Apple has poached employees of rival electric carmaker Tesla.
The company may have been working on an electric van. The vehicle project laid off or transferred approximately 200 workers in 2019. The vehicle project has resulted in an ever-growing list of patents, which point to some possible features.
South Korean media reported on Jan. 10 that Hyundai and Apple planned to sign a deal by March 2021. report.