Apple Contacted Nissan About Its Car, But Branding Dispute Ended Talks

Don't get us wrong but it seems that Apple is desperate to find a partner to build its Apple car. This won't be Nissan though as a new report claims the talks with the Japanese automaker are no longer active. But we'll get to that in a minute.

In December last year, it was reported that the project for an electric vehicle from the tech giant is still alive and the company is even preparing its suppliers for the upcoming production. A few weeks later, a report emerged saying Apple is in talks with Hyundai but shortly after, it was confirmed the South Korean company won't be involved in the project.

This brings us to last week when another report suggested Apple contacted Nissan with the same task. Simply put, help us build our first car. It turns out initial discussions with Nissan were held but the Financial Times now reports the talks are now dead-ended. According to the publication, Apple asked Nissan to build Apple-branded cars, which was against what the automaker was interested in.

"We can do [a] partnership, but that is to adapt their services to our product, not vice versa," Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's chief operating officer, told the Financial Times. "We have our own customer satisfaction, which comes by car. No way we are going to change the way we make cars."

This puts Apple in a situation where it's still looking for a company from the automotive industry to form a cooperation that would support the launch of the Apple car. According to analysts, Nissan would have been a good option for the tech firm because it has expertise in building electric cars and also has capacity in its US plants. The automaker seems to no longer be an option for Apple though.