Last updated: February 27, 2024 at 9:02 PM ET
First Published: February 27, 2024 at 8:48 PM ET
Apple will halt its ambitious 10-year effort to develop an electric car with self-driving capabilities, according to a report on Tuesday.
Bloomberg News first reported that Apple AAPL executives made an internal announcement Tuesday that some employees from the automotive team will be transferred to other parts of the company, specifically Apple’s AI division. Other workers are also likely to be laid off.
of…
Apple will halt its ambitious 10-year effort to develop an electric car with self-driving capabilities, according to a report on Tuesday.
Bloomberg News first reported that Apple
AAPL
Executives announced internally on Tuesday that some employees from the automotive team will be transferred to other parts of the company, specifically Apple’s AI division. Other workers are also likely to be laid off.
The report was later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The effort, dubbed “Project Titan,” has been rumored for years, with reports ranging from fully autonomous Apple-branded cars with no steering wheel to traditional cars with limited self-driving capabilities. I did. At one point, Apple reportedly hoped the vehicle could compete with Tesla.
TSLA
EVs sell for about $100,000 each.
But the project has been plagued by technical hurdles, repeated delays and a weakening EV market.
Also read: Amazon lost nearly $1 billion on its investment in Rivian last week.
Bloomberg reported in 2021 that Apple hopes to launch the vehicle by 2025. In 2022, it was reported that efforts were scaled back and the target date was pushed back to 2026.
As recently as January, Bloomberg reported that Apple had further scaled back its plans, setting a new target date of 2028.
In total, Apple spent about 10 years and billions of dollars on this project. But in the end, it was determined that the price was too high and it was unlikely to generate the high profit margins that Apple enjoys with other products, according to Bloomberg.
“The EV landscape is shaping up to be very different from what we’ve seen in the past, and it was inevitable that Apple would struggle,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. tweeted Tuesday. “Most of Project Titan’s engineers are now focused on AI at Apple, which is the right choice.”
Apple shares rose about 1% on Tuesday. Compared to the S&P 500, the stock is down about 5% year-to-date, but up 24% over the past 12 months.
SPX is up 6.5% in 2024 and 28% over the past year.
