Speculation last week reached fever pitch following reports Apple’s first car would be launched in 2024, but experts have warned this timeline is unlikely.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests 2025-2027 is more realistic, but adds experts ‘would not be surprised if Apple Car’s launch schedule is postponed to 2028 or later’.
In a research note seen by MacRumours, the Apple expert adds the market appears ‘overly bullish’ about Apple’s launch plan.
It is believed the vehicle would be autonomous as well as fully electric and would be Apple branded but manufactured by a third-party company.
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Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests 2025 – 2027 is more realistic as a launch window than 2024 but adds he ‘would not be surprised if Apple Car’s launch schedule is postponed to 2028 or later’
The TF International Securities analyst cites uncertainty around the schedule of the Apple Car throws the 2024 target into doubt.
Kuo did previously say an Apple Car could be available between 2023 and 2025 but has since revised this estimate.
‘If development starts this year and everything goes well, it will be launched in 2025–2027 at the earliest,’ Kuo now believes.
Wider issues surrounding the electric vehicle market itself could also push back the release.
‘Due to changes in the EV/self-driving market and Apple’s high-quality standards, we would not be surprised if Apple Car’s launch schedule is postponed to 2028 or later,’ Kuo warns.
The Tesla boss took to Twitter following the news of the Apple Car, calling it ‘strange’ and labelling a monocell battery as ‘electrochemically impossible’ due to its low voltage output
A Reuters report published last week claims Apple has been working on an automobile since 2014, codenamed ‘Project Titan’.
The approach has been scattershot but focus on the car returned with vigor in 2019, sources told Reuters.
Central to Apple’s strategy is a new battery design that could ‘radically’ reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range, according to a third person who has seen Apple’s battery design.
Apple declined to comment on its plans or future products.
Making a vehicle represents a supply chain challenge even for deep-pocketed Apple, which makes hundreds of millions of electronics each year with parts from around the world.
It took Elon Musk’s Tesla 17 years before it finally turned a sustained profit making automobiles.
The Tesla boss took to Twitter following the news of the Apple Car, calling it ‘strange’ and labelling a monocell battery as ‘electrochemically impossible’ due to its low voltage output.
‘During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.’
