Nope, Nissan is not in talks with Apple for autonomous car project

As mentioned by Reuters, the Nissan spokesperson said “We are not in talks with Apple.”

Nissan Car. (Unsplash)

A while ago it was reported that Hyundai and Kia are in talks with Apple for manufacturing an electric car, or what was tipped as the “Apple Car”. However, both two companies later denied this in a statement. Soon we started hearing that Nissan was another candidate to partner with Apple for the autonomous car project. But in the latest statement issued by the automaker, it has been made clear that Nissan is not in discussions to work with Apple.

According to a report by Financial Times, the Japanese automaker did engage in talks with Apple. Now, as mentioned by Reuters, the Nissan spokesperson said “We are not in talks with Apple.” It was added that “However, Nissan is always open to exploring collaborations and partnerships to accelerate industry transformation.”

The second statement doesn't confirm that the talk ever took place, but it also doesn't contradict the Financial Times story. According to FT “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.”

Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta told the newspaper that “We have our own customer satisfaction, which comes by car. No way we are going to change the way we make cars.” Gupta added that “The way we design, the way we develop, and the way we manufacture is going to be as an automotive manufacturer, as Nissan.”

Although Hyundai has already denied that it is working with Apple on the autonomous car project, analyst Ming Chi-Kuo believes that the first Apple Car will be built on Honda's E-GMP platform and will ship in 2025 at the earliest.