– Reuters reported on the 21st (local time) that Apple is aiming to launch an autonomous electric vehicle in 2024. In Silicon Valley, there are also observations that Apple will announce automobile production in the form of a presentation around the third quarter of 2021. However, Apple has not confirmed all these reports and rumors.
◆ Why is Apple jumping in?
Since 2014, Apple has been promoting electric vehicle plans under the name of’Project Titan’. It is known that thousands of engineers at Apple already work on Sunnyvale, a few miles from Cupertino, where Apple is headquartered. In addition, in the area of Milpitas near Fremont, where the Tesla plant is located, the land that can build a large-scale manufacturing plant has been purchased in 2018. However, planning to make an electric vehicle is not easy. In 2016, it was announced that the vehicle platform development plan had been closed, and in 2019, more than 190 engineers were fired. There have been many observations that Apple will quit, like Dyson, UK, a leading engineering company that declared that it would give up in 2019 after diligently developing electric vehicles.
However, it seems that Apple has decided to rise to the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market. According to McKinsey, electric vehicles account for only 2.5% of the total automotive market in 2019, but it is expected to rise to 30% by 2025. Every year, sales of the electric vehicle market are expected to grow by 22% on an annual average. At the CES held earlier this year, the word’Electric Decade’ was a hot topic.
◆ What kind of car will Apple make
Everything is veiled when it comes to the car that Apple will release by 2024. However, according to a report by Reuters, Apple is expected to try to set the price of electric vehicles lower than those of gasoline vehicles by significantly lowering battery prices like Tesla. In particular, it is reported that vehicle manufacturing costs can be lowered through a single battery manufacturing technology called’monocell’. Tesla also announced a technology that turns the vehicle body into battery cells on Battery Day in September. It is noteworthy how much Apple, which has a high-priced strategy, will cut its vehicle price.
In addition, Apple is expected to install LiDAR, which recognizes the surroundings with a laser. Apple has already applied the LiDAR sensor to the iPhone 12 Pro smartphone. Through this, it is expected that Apple will ultimately plant autonomous driving software in vehicles. In particular, it is expected that Apple will also put its own semiconductor’Apple Silicon’, which was recently decided to be installed in iPhone, MacBook, etc. in electric vehicles. However, since Apple hasn’t officially announced vehicle manufacturing yet, all possibilities are open. It is possible to sell battery technology or autonomous driving software to other vehicle companies in the form of licenses without actually manufacturing vehicles.
◆ The impact on Tesla
The 21st, when Reuters reported on Apple’s auto production plan, was the first day Tesla was incorporated into the S&P 500 and traded. However, Tesla’s stock price fell by 6.5% during the day. Accordingly, many people pointed out that Tesla’s share price fell due to Apple’s entry into the electric vehicle market. US economic media CNBC reported, “The share price of Tesla, which was incorporated into the S&P500 on the day of the announcement of Apple’s electric car, fell.” The dominant evaluation is that only Apple has the manufacturing capacity, global parts supply chain, and quality-first culture that can beat Tesla.
However, it is argued that Tesla’s share price declined because of Apple was a premature analysis. “In 5 years, electric vehicles will occupy 30% of the total automobile market,” said Gene Munster, a judge at Loop Ventures. Will be waged.” In other words, even if Apple’s electric car is released, the impact on Tesla will not be significant. The market itself is growing rapidly and enormously, so the share that Apple can eat is also very large. In addition, it is more likely that Apple will outperform other automakers rather than consuming Tesla’s share.
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