It seems like every couple of years someone makes a claim that Apple is actually going to make a full-on electric car. We know that they have a team working on vehicle-related stuff, but don’t forget that software like Apple Car Play is constantly being worked on.
Reuters is reporting, though, that Apple is preparing to launch its car in 2024. Making this all possible is a breakthrough in battery technology that the outlet describes as “next level.”
Called Project Titan, the Apple car project has been on and off since 2014. In 2019, the team laid off 190 people.
Now, allegedly, the company is going to build a car for consumers, contrasting the fully-autonomous efforts put forth by Alphabet’s Waymo.
New battery technology will be key to making it happen, and sources tell Reuters that the tech makes for lower cost and improved range.
“If there is one company on the planet that has the resources to do that, it’s probably Apple. But at the same time, it’s not a cellphone,” said a person who worked on Project Titan.
It should be noted that while Apple likely has the financial resources to make it happen, it takes time to make a car profitable. Tesla took 17 years before turning a profit, and that’s only, in part, because of the carbon offset credits the company sells.
Apple wouldn’t be building the vehicles, though, at least according to the report. But companies like Magna, who Apple was reportedly in talks with, need commitments of 100,000 or more vehicles per year to make it viable.
SEE ALSO: The Apple Car already exists, it just has a Tesla badge on the hood
But, leaning on outside technology for Lidar, construction techniques, and so on would increase the likelihood for success of the product, and also remove the manufacturing hurdles Tesla faced when it decided to build a car company from scratch, including all the production capability.
It’s the end of 2020, and 2024 is a long time away. But if it is something that is, in fact, happening, we should start hearing more next year.
