Apple has launched its regular lineup of products — most recently the iPhone 15 series, the Apple Watch Series 9, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and a refreshed pair of AirPods Pro — without any noticeable issues, but its longest-lived aspirational electric vehicle faces an uncertain future . Apple’s car project, known internally as Titan, has been plagued by repeated delays and development issues and appears to have hit new hurdles. According to prominent Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s car plans have “lost all visibility” and the Cupertino, California-based tech company must look at alternative strategies to make progress in a highly competitive automotive sector.
TF Securities analyst Kuo, in a after on X on Wednesday, casting doubt on Project Titan, Apple’s bet on a self-driving electric vehicle. “The development of the Apple Car seems to have lost all visibility at this point,” Kuo’s post read. “If Apple doesn’t adopt an acquisition strategy to enter the automotive market, I doubt the Apple Car can go into mass production within the next few years.”
The development of the Apple Car seems to have lost all visibility at the moment. If Apple doesn’t adopt an acquisition strategy to enter the car market, I doubt the Apple Car can go into mass production within the next few years.
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Apple…— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) September 27, 2023
Kuo’s comments seem to suggest that Apple should find a partner with expertise in the automotive industry to collaborate and help bring the car project to market. It’s worth noting that Apple hasn’t officially commented or confirmed its plans to bring an electric car to consumers. However, the Apple car remains an open secret in the technology and automotive industries, especially as Apple has been looking for talent in the same field in recent years. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said as much back in 2016. “It’s pretty hard to hide something when you hire more than a thousand engineers to do it,” Musk had said at the time about Apple’s plans to compete with Tesla in the field of electric vehicles.
Kuo did not elaborate on his claims in his post on X (formerly Twitter), but his comments are consistent with the widely reported stuttering development on Project Titan. In December last year, Bloomberg had reported that Apple had postponed the launch of its electric car until 2026, missing its expected 2025 target. Much more worrying was the claim that the tech giant was pulling back on plans for an advanced self-driving electric car because the current technology was reportedly incompatible with the company’s vision of a fully autonomous vehicle. Apple initially planned for the vehicle to ship without a steering wheel and pedals; that has been put on the back burner in favor of a more traditional car design that would support self-driving on highways.
Apple had also reportedly lowered price estimates for its planned EV and was looking to price the vehicle under $100,000 (approximately Rs. 82 lakh), much lower than initial projections of over $120,000 (approximately Rs. 1 crore). As previously mentioned, there has been no official communication from Apple regarding its car project, with Project Titan reportedly stuck in the ‘pre-prototype’ stage without a final design for the vehicle. The only piece of official information regarding Apple’s automotive efforts came when the US announced charges in five cases involving technology theft that allegedly benefited China, Russia and Iran. Among them was a former Apple engineer, 35-year-old Weibao Wang, who was accused of targeting the company’s technology at autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.
While plans to launch an electric car remain in limbo, this hasn’t stopped Apple from increasing its brand strength, even in an industry where the tech company is still a novice. Although the company is still years away from launching a car, a survey published last year found that a significant number of US customers would buy an Apple car. Surprisingly, Apple ranked third on a list of 45 car brands that customers say keep the bar for quality high.