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According to South Korea IT News,
Apple sent another person to South Korea last month.
Met with some manufacturers who have experience in the production of large-scale electronic components,
This is also Apple's second large-scale visit to South Korea.
A hypothetical drawing drawn by foreign media based on Apple's patent design drawings
Companies such as LG and SK have discussed with Apple the development and production of batteries for electric vehicles. Some vendors have even set up a "Task Force" to respond positively to Apple's request.
According to people familiar with the matter, Apple has provided equity investment to at least one local component manufacturer in exchange for doubling production capacity.
However, Apple is careful to keep its car projects confidential, because once the information is leaked, it may face the risk that Apple will exclude it from suppliers.
Apple expects to select auto parts suppliers by the end of 2022, and then start full research and development, public car manufacturing projects and mass production in the next two to three years.
Reuters quoted South Korean media IT News as saying that "Apple Cars" is expected to produce 100,000 units in the United States in 2024, and the annual production capacity will increase to 400,000 units in the future.
It is worth noting that Apple has been in contact with China's Ningde Times, BYD, and One of Japan's largest auto air conditioning parts suppliers, but was politely rejected.
In fact, as early as 2014, Apple launched a car-making program code-named "Titan" and immediately began to recruit, such as Ulrich Kranz, the father of BMW's i-series, and CJ. Moore, JOHANN Jungwirth, CEO of mercedes-Benz North American R&D Center.
In just half a year, Apple has set up a team of thousands of employees in the car-making project, but the actual progress of Apple's car-making plan is not as smooth as expected.
The following year, due to management unrest caused by the Titan plan, Apple dismissed most of its team members, and the car-building plan focused only on the development of self-driving technology.
In 2017, Apple began to test the self-driving technology, and by 2020, Apple's self-driving mileage has exceeded 30,000 kilometers, and the longest "off-hand" distance has reached 232 kilometers.
In 2021, Titan plans to change its strategic goals again, but this year its automotive project team has left at least 5 executives.
However, Apple is still serious about building cars. According to incomplete statistics, from 2017 to now, Apple has obtained more than 100 car patents. As of 2020, Apple's patented technology in the automotive field has covered autonomous driving, charging, on-board systems, body structure optimization and other aspects.