British car maker McLaren has denied that it is in talks with Apple over a strategic investment or full-blown takeover.
A report in the Financial Times suggested that the American halo brand was considering a 拢1.2billion acquisition of the manufacturer of high-performance and Formula One cars.
鈥淲e can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment,鈥� read a McLaren statement.
However it then added: 鈥淎s you would expect, the nature of our brand means we regularly have confidential conversations with a wide range of parties, but we keep them confidential.鈥�
The FT鈥檚 report said that its source wasn’t sure if Apple was still interested after a “change of strategy” in its car plans.
Apple has long been rumoured to be working on an electric vehicle containing driverless technology 鈥� 鈥楶roject Titan鈥� 鈥� with several hires and fires in that field.
More recently it has been reported that Apple is considering working exclusively on the software for autonomous vehicles 鈥� which are expensive to manufacture 鈥� rather than building its own.
Linking up with McLaren seems a strange move, as its road supercars range from 拢100,000 to 拢1 million in price.
Tesla鈥檚 high-end cars approach the cost of the cheapest McLaren, but CEO Elon Musk is committed to manufacturing lower-cost vehicles for the 鈥榤asses鈥�.
A link-up with McLaren would see Apple either own or potentially have access to McLaren Applied Technologies, which feeds a multitude of industries including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, transportation and consumer brands.
Apple聽took a risk recently when it ditched the traditional headphone jack and聽bundled wireless 鈥楢irpods鈥� with the new iPhone 7.