Better hope your ‘Apple iCar’ will not need anything repaired... ever. And you must take your iCar to an authorized Apple service facility for that $150 tire rotation, or the warranty will be void.
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Apple Pauses Electric Car Talks With Hyundai and Kia
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Silly billy... yes, Toyota are renowned for (not being the most exciting) but certainly known for being incredibly reliable.I'm sure you know more than the automotive experts Apple hired to study which manufacturer makes quality parts.
As already stated they also own Lexus... I'm guessing you know jack about cars right?
And the idea of Apple wanting to be Tesla... Jesus even Musk admits the build quality is subpar...
Because they cant - its as simple as that - apple is not that great company everyone thinks - they can hardly put an iphone together - and almost every new product has major technical issues.
Building a car is still a thing as Tesla showed impressively
You are right - but apple could have made a major investment in tesla - just to have the foot in the best car startup. I think at that time it was politically incorrect for any major fang company to do that - but it would have been the right investment for either of them.
Especially m$ could have set a big blow to apple - entering the consumer mobility market - instead the cranked out silly two screen devices - completely hilarious!
After 3.4 billion dollars investment?
I call it bs.
I think it's just an excuse to let us believe there is no more rumors coming because there is no more apple/kia partnership, when the truth is the opposite 😉
I call it bs.
I think it's just an excuse to let us believe there is no more rumors coming because there is no more apple/kia partnership, when the truth is the opposite 😉
What does Apple have to offer for Tesla ast this point? Nothing. They missed their chance to buy the company years ago.
They should be working with Mercedes. They have a brand new very advanced electric platform and high quality.
Mercedes was also the one to supply Tesla with all sorts of parts when they first got started.
Mercedes was also the one to supply Tesla with all sorts of parts when they first got started.
You are beyond annoying.
How is Tesla the best? Tesla make the lowest quality cars. Worst in the industry. Look it up.
If they make this car as buggy as they make their OS's, it will be a death trap. You can go scarcely a day without witnessing some sort of Apple bug in MacOS, or iOS. That is fine for some personal software, but you can't write software like that in a realtime system. It comes from a lack of automated testing and is systemic to Apple as a company. This is a blessing in disguise for Kia/Hyundai.
Your hate is kinda disturbing.
Tesla makes the safest cars in the world - POINT that’s a FACT
Build quality was never that bad as you say but was quite bad for the price. But that’s already PAST - NOW even sandy Monroe says the newest models have excellent gap measures and fantastic paint job. Not to mention it has high tech inside and soon single casted front and back.
Unless you are a shortseller you should really try to UPDATE your facts!
I think the interest for a car manufacturer is in technology licensing, assuming Apple has tech that they don't already have and excess production capacity. For KIA, access to Apple tech would let them compete with bigger manufacturers on features and expand their production facilities.
Tesla, right now, is dependent on selling credits to other manufacturers for a good chunk of its cash flow. That will start going away so Tesla needs to ramp up production to the point cars are actually profitable when all costs are included.
Lexus would likely want to keep their brand on the car and dictate a lot of the features and styling; something Apple won't likely agree to. Kia, OTOH, is more likely to do so and build quality vehicles.
True, the question is can Apple's brand aadd enough perceived value to command a premium that prices it against established players?
Volvo would be interesting, but owning a manufacturing plant of that scale and size is not typically how Apple works.
In addition, if the car flops and they own Volvo they are stuck with it and can't just shut it down and probably would sell at a loss.
You also have to look at the source of the income. That'd be great if their core products were financing the investment so that if they scale back they are profitable; but in Tesla's case a significant chunk is from selling credits that will not last as other manufacturers ramp up EV sales. That also means greater competition so Tesla faces 2 challenges to long term viability. The politicaal and labor ramifications are headaches Apple likely would try to avoid; not to mention Apple would have to deal with powerful unions.
Polestar would make more sense but then Apple would be tied to China for production and technology transfer.
Tesla is one of a number of top rated vehicles by the IIHS. They're good, but so are a number of other vehicles.
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I think the big sticking point is the buying and servicing experience.
By and large, the vast majority of vehicles today are of a good quality, well built to low tolerances etc. The difficulty comes when people that have had very positive experiences with Apple's customer service (iPhone replacements etc.) have to go to a Kia/Hyundai dealership for a warranty fault. Generally, motor companies don't own the dealer network that sells and services their vehicles. Having a parallel set of customer service standards for the same dealership will result in even more headache.
It's going to be interesting to see how everything plays out. There's a lot of risk for anyone involved in an Apple car
By and large, the vast majority of vehicles today are of a good quality, well built to low tolerances etc. The difficulty comes when people that have had very positive experiences with Apple's customer service (iPhone replacements etc.) have to go to a Kia/Hyundai dealership for a warranty fault. Generally, motor companies don't own the dealer network that sells and services their vehicles. Having a parallel set of customer service standards for the same dealership will result in even more headache.
It's going to be interesting to see how everything plays out. There's a lot of risk for anyone involved in an Apple car
So you're doubling down on your assertion that you're smarter than Apple's engineers, correct? To be frank, I'm not seeing a good argument in your post other than using brand to proxy reliability. Are you forgetting that Takata disaster from Toyota, the biggest screw up in automotive history? Should that not raise red flags about Toyota's QA protocols?
Apple's research is more detailed and objective, qnd they most certainly did not use brand as a variable when they measured quality. Are you shocked that they came to to a different conclusion than you did?
Go apply for a position in Apple's automotive team if you think you know better.
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Hyundai is Kia’s parent company and their new luxury brand Genesis has been reviewed in depth and has received pretty high marks. There is no reason why Apple shouldn’t choose Hyundai if it makes sense to them. Apple rarely makes decisions in haste - especially not an expensive one.
Also… I have owned a Hyundai Sonata for years now. It’s been the best car I’ve ever owned. It did have a defective engine, but Hyundai took care of it and every cost associated with it including a rental while the car was at the dealership. Their customer service was impressive. And other than that defect, I’ve literally had NO issues with the vehicle and it now has 130,000 miles on it. I expect it will continue to be a good car until I part with it to something newer.
Dealer experience does matter. I own a Hyundai and had to use a dealership an hour from home when my engine failed. I will say this - Hyundai corporate customer service was great. The car was towed to the closest dealer. The dealer contact Hyundai. Hyundai asked for photos of the engine oil pan off of the vehicle. Within an hour or two of the photos being sent to them they approved a new engine and a rental car until the car was repaired. I paid for nothing. I got a daily phone call up until the engine was at the dealership to give me updates. It was pretty nice.
While this is a nice story and all, people here are going to pay $150K for a Kia.
Are you happy about that?
IRRC Hyundai owns something like 30% of Kia but does a lot of shared engineering to reduce costs. The genesis line is, IMHO, Lexus/Infiniti were when they were introduce; i.e. a high quality car that sold for less to break into the market.
I agree. A lot will have to do with how a company is willing to partner in terms of branding, service, etc. I doubt many manufacturers would want to build separate Apple Car Stores inside a dealership; and dealers would likely balk at that as well and simply not sell Apple cars. Look at what GM is doing with Cadillac, as an example.
If Apple decides to go it alone they will run up against franchise laws in the US. Dealers are very powerful politically and would certainly view Apple as a threat and push hard to keep them out. Going with an established, but not major player, gives Apple a lot of leverage and takes away a lot of the risk and puts it on Hyundai or Kia.
I have a friend who had the same experience and as a result is a big fan and plans to put another 100k on it at a minimum. His Sonata looks like new externally and in the interior and has a new engine as well. I understand Hyundai offers a lifetime warranty on the replacement?
Hyundai's used to be the rental car you avoided and only took as a last resort or if the other option was a Suzuki. They have come a long way from those days; despite what some may say.
I don’t consider Tesla anything but a piece of garbage if apple used them I would not buy one. Basing this on all my friends that have one and hate it bells and whistles are pretty but not when it’s broken all the time.