Report: Apple Chose to Develop Apple Car Alone to Avoid Further Delays, Currently Selecting Suppliers

Apple is developing its electric vehicle independently without the assistance of another automaker and is currently selecting final parts suppliers, according to sources said to be familiar with Apple's plans speaking to Korea's Maeil Economic Daily.

Apple car wheel icon feature yellow
In line with a previous report from Reuters, the report explains that the company has had its own automobile hardware research and development unit since 2014, but due to development challenges, it contacted BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota to explore joint development and contract production agreements.

During this period, its own department for vehicle hardware research and development is believed to have virtually stopped operating around 2016. Separately, software research on self-driving continued.

The talks with automakers apparently fell apart due to repeated delays and the wider industry transformation toward electric vehicles slowing down the progress of any joint development and production agreement. There was also reluctance from some large automakers about becoming a manufacturing subcontractor for Apple. Apple is believed to have decided that it could not delay the launch of its car any further.

With these talks stalling, Apple has entirely turned once again to its own development and restored the full operation of its vehicle research unit. Although Doug Field, Apple's vice president of special projects, recently left the project to join Ford, the company is still believed to have hundreds of engineers working on the vehicle.

Apple has now gone through the process of sending a Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), and Request for Quotation (RFQ) to global automobile part manufacturers, which is understood to be a signal that the final parts suppliers for Apple's car are now being selected for outsourced production.

Mirroring the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the report places the launch of the vehicle around 2025 to 2027.

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Top Rated Comments

oldmacs Avatar
50 months ago
I just wish they'd go back to making Airports and Time Capsules...
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CrapShack Avatar
50 months ago

Mirroring the analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, the report places the launch of the vehicle around 2025 to 2027 ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/27/kuo-apple-car-2025-2027-at-earliest/'), with Apple's sales revenue expected to increase by approximately $64 million as a consequence.
Shouldn't that read billion? $64 million would be a rounding error in the sales of power adapters for Apple.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BrentT Avatar
50 months ago
Building cars is hard. They have to be reliable and safe. Selling them with US states prohibiting company owned dealerships creates difficulties. I am surprised Apple is trying to get into this business as it is far removed from their core computing/UI focus. I hope they have figured it out as I would be interested.

EVs have many fewer moving parts compared to an ICE vehicle but the mechanical and electrical engineering still required in an EV is massive.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
subjonas Avatar
50 months ago
64 MILLION DOLLARS!


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Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darcyf Avatar
50 months ago

Building cars is hard. They have to be reliable and safe. Selling them with US states prohibiting company owned dealerships creates difficulties. I am surprised Apple is trying to get into this business as it is far removed from their core computing/UI focus. I hope they have figured it out as I would be interested.

EVs have many fewer moving parts compared to an ICE vehicle but the mechanical and electrical engineering still required in an EV is massive.
Virtually everything you’ve said could have been applied to the phone market before iPhone. Hard, need to be reliable and safe, require partnerships with telecoms to sell or they’re just a fancy brick, it’s a phone, not a computer, so apple should stick to what they know.

Tesla considers their cars to be robots. I think people need to stop thinking of cars like the crude vehicles we’ve known for the past century to understand what apple is doing. Phones dramatically changed because of apple. Cars will, too.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Robert.Walter Avatar
50 months ago

they are so behind this its crazy. Tesla will be waving them in the rear mirror.

I'm all up for Apple car but I think that they won't be able to compete once Tesla sorts out its production issues
Detroit said the same about the Japanese in the 1970’s.

Now look at things.

Never underestimate a determined competitor.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)