The shares of Hyundai Motor Co. rose more than 20% in Seoul on Friday after the South Korean automaker confirmed it was in talks with Apple Inc. to develop a self-driving electric car.
“Apple and Hyundai are in discussion, but as it is at an early stage, nothing has been decided yet,” Hyundai said in a statement.
That was enough to ignite the Hyundai 005380,
biggest gain in intraday trading since at least 1988.
Korean news website Hankyung first reported the Apple news, saying Hyundai would manufacture the Apple-designed car and develop batteries for it as well.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that it will cost Apple AAPL,
at least five years to develop a self-driving car. Bloomberg also reported that a number of former Tesla Inc. TSLA,
executives have been added to the project.
It has been rumored for years that Apple has been working on a self-driving car, and has gone back and forth between developing its own car and developing the technology for one car. Last month, Reuters reported that Apple was once again looking to develop a passenger car, with a target date of 2024.
Apple shares are up more than 3% on Thursday and are up 69% in the past year, compared to a 7% gain by the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
of which it is a part, over the past 12 months.