Officials Are In South Korea, Apple Will Cooperate With Ginseng State Companies To Build Electric Vehicles?

Apple Car illustration. (Source: 9to5mac)

JAKARTA - The US technology giant Apple is said to be in contact with several electric vehicle component manufacturers from South Korea, according to industry sources with knowledge of this.

Since last year, Apple is said to be planning to enter the electric vehicle business. However, such as the development of previous products such as iPhone, iPad to MacBook, which utilize manufacturing facilities through third parties.

This strategy is also said to be taken by Apple in producing its electric vehicles. Industry sources said that Korean manufacturers of electric vehicle batteries and other components would be able to benefit from Apple's business strategy.

"Apple officials have been in Korea for business talks with Korean partners in the semiconductor and display sectors. As seen in Apple's smartphone business, the company is looking for business partners in Korea for its electric vehicle business," a senior industry executive directly involved with Apple said. told The Korea Times, as quoted Monday 9 August.

"Without a partnership with a Korean vendor, Apple will not be able to complete its electric vehicle business plan. As far as I know, Apple has spoken with LG, SK, and Hanwha, although talks are still in the early stages," he continued.

Apple has reportedly sent members of its electric vehicle business project team to South Korea, to hold meetings with representatives from the SK Group and auto component makers, according to local reports. These reports support the possibility that Apple will team up with a Korean company for its electric vehicle business.

Apple Car illustration. (Source: wccftech)

A number of Ginseng State companies that are said to have the potential to make contact with Apple include electric vehicle battery manufacturer SK Innovation, which is a subsidiary of SK Group, and LG Electronics.

Recently, LG established a joint venture, LG Magna e-Powertrain, along with Canadian-based auto parts maker Magna International.

Representatives from SK and LG Electronics said it was difficult to confirm whether the meeting took place. The Korea Times was the first to report that the LG Magna is very close to winning a volume order to manufacture Apple's first-generation electric vehicle.

Meanwhile, Apple is said to be considering using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which tend to be less hot and therefore safer, compared to lithium-ion batteries, which are currently produced by most Korean battery makers.

Made of lithium and iron phosphate, LFP batteries exhibit weaker performance at colder temperatures than lithium-ion batteries, but cost less. In the LFP battery business, mainland Chinese manufacturers take the lead, as there are no Korean manufacturers producing batteries.

Given the fact that Korean battery companies do not manufacture LFP batteries and mainland Chinese battery makers are at the forefront of the LFP battery business, the industry view is that Apple is likely to use LFP batteries from these Chinese vendors.

According to the China Automotive Battery Research Institute, Chinese battery makers such as CATL and BYD provided 30.8 gigawatt-hours of LFP batteries last year, which accounts for 47 percent of the entire electric vehicle battery market.

To note, in order to support electric vehicles in the United States market, Apple is also expected to strengthen relations with Korean battery companies.

This is in line with the growing challenges from China, while President Joe Biden moves to revitalize domestic manufacturing capacity and create more local jobs in green businesses, especially electric vehicles.

As President Biden plans to provide sales discounts and tax incentives for purchases of electric vehicles manufactured there, it is important for automakers to establish electric vehicle production lines in the United States.

Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation are already operating or are in the process of building a battery manufacturing facility in the United States, with Samsung SDI saying they are also considering building a battery factory there.