Nissan Denies Being Part of Any Discussion With Apple Over Manufacturing Cars

Nissan will not talk with Apple on Car manufacturing: Learn the details

Monday, 15th February 2021

In a statement, Japanese car maker Nissan has denied being in any sort of discussions with US company Apple over their much-in-rumour autonomous car project. It has been reported that in recent months Apple had approached the automaker about a possible partnership.

A spokesperson from Nissan said, “We are not in talks with Apple”, but added, “However, Nissan is always open to exploring collaborations and partnerships to accelerate industry transformation.”

The statement given makes no reference to whether the two firms were ever in talks and thus reports that they did have a contact, cannot be completely contradicted. It has also been reported that the “the contact was brief and the discussions did not advance to senior management levels following divisions over branding for the iPhone maker’s electric vehicles.” It went on to state that it was Apple’s request to Nissan to manufacture cars bearing the former’s branding.

Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said, “We have our own customer satisfaction, which comes by car. No way we are going to change the way we make cars.” He too did not deny in clear terms that talks never took place between the two firms. Instead he went on to say, “The way we design, the way we develop, and the way we manufacture is going to be as an automotive manufacturer, as Nissan.”

These speculations came after a recent statement issued by Korean automaker Hyundai where they said they were not in talks with Apple on the project. According to analyst Ming-chi Kuo, the first Apple car will be built on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform and ship in 2025 at the earliest.

It had been reported in December last year that Apple was planning to go ahead with its plans of autonomous car technology and was looking at producing a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology as early as 2024.

The News Talkie Bureau

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