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| Apple and Canoo negotiate electric cars |
Apple held a meeting with electric startup Canoo in the first half of 2020 to promote the electric vehicle project.
The two companies have discussed various options, from investment to acquisition, and Canoo's scalable electric vehicle platform appears to be Apple's main attraction.
This platform differs from that developed by other startups and large automakers in that the platform integrates more electronic vehicle equipment, allowing greater flexibility in how the cabin is designed.
It also features wire guide technology, which also adds design flexibility and is not widely used in industry.
Canoo was more concerned with securing investments than Apple, but the conversation eventually broke down. Canoo became a public company after going public on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in late 2020.
In recent years, Apple has purchased at least one mobile phone and acquired Drive.ai in 2019.
The news that Apple was interested in Canoo came when Reuters reported that the tech company was in talks with Hyundai about building driverless electric cars early in 2024.
Apple's auto project, called Project Titan, has seen many changes over the years, but it has now refocused on making electric, self-driving cars, and working with smaller car makers (like Canoo) and big car makers (like Hyundai). ) Hold meetings in the hope of being outsourced. Applies to: design and manufacturing processes.
Canoo was founded by a small group of people in late 2017. The group is separate from the struggling Faraday Electric Vehicle Company and includes several former BMW executives.
Canoo plans to manufacture commercial electric vehicles such as delivery trucks or food trucks, as well as consumer-oriented trucks that are sold by subscription.
The negotiations with Apple come at a critical time for Canoo. Canoo has lost $ 122.3 million developing its concept car in 2019, and by 2020 it has only $ 29 million in the bank.
Canoo held meetings with a number of companies in China's Silicon Valley and other regions in 2019 and 2020, but the deal did not take place and the startup needs short-term financing.
While Canoo now has the funding it is looking for in early 2020, it hasn't dampened its ambitions to work with large companies like Apple.
In regulatory documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the startup said: We are currently in discussions with several other players in the industry interested in using Canoo's technical and technical expertise. In its commercial products. Big business owners of importance.