© Reuters.
By Gina Lee
Investing.com – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. (KS:005380) is in early stage talks with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to co-operate on self-driving electric vehicles and batteries.
Hyundai Motor shares soared 20.15% to KRW247,500 ($226.55) by 11:33 PM ET (4:33 AM GMT). The news sent shares up as much as 24% earlier in the session, the biggest intraday stock surge since 1988.
“Apple and Hyundai are in discussion, but as it is at early stage, nothing has been decided,” the South Korean company said in a statement Friday.
Korean media reported the discussions earlier in the day. It was also reported that Hyundai has completed internal discussions on the collaboration and is currently awaiting approval from Chairman Eui Sun Chung.
Apple declined to comment.
Apple is advancing its self-driving car technology and targets producing a passenger vehicle that could include its own battery technology, Reuters reported in December. However, work on such a vehicle is still in the early stages, with Apple expected to take at least five years to launch an autonomous, electric vehicle.
For its part, Hyundai Motors is accelerating its push into new technologies such as electric, driverless and flying cars, including setting up a $4 billion autonomous-driving joint venture with Dublin-headquartered Aptiv (NYSE:APTV) in September 2019.
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