Apple Inc. is scrapping an ambitious, decade-long effort to develop an electric car with self-driving capabilities, according to reports Tuesday.
Bloomberg News first reported that Apple
AAPL,
executives made the announcement internally Tuesday, and that some employees on the car team would be shifted to other parts of the company, particularly Apple’s AI division. Other workers will likely be laid off.
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times later confirmed the report. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The effort, dubbed Project Titan, had been rumored for years, with reports ranging from a fully autonomous, Apple-branded vehicle without a steering wheel to a more conventional car with limited self-driving features. Apple had, at one time, reportedly hoped the vehicle could compete with Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
EVs, and sell for around $100,000 each.
But the project was plagued by technological hurdles, numerous delays and a softer market for EVs.
Also read: Amazon lost nearly $1 billion on its Rivian investment last week
Bloomberg reported in 2021 that Apple had hoped to launch the vehicle by 2025; in 2022, it was reported that the effort had been scaled back and the target date had been pushed to 2026.
As recently as January, Bloomberg reported Apple had scaled down its plans even further, with a new target date of 2028.
In all, Apple spent about a decade and billions of dollars on the project. But it was ultimately deemed too expensive, and unlikely to produce the high profit margins Apple enjoys with its other products, according to Bloomberg.
“The writing was on the wall for Apple with a much different EV landscape forming that would have made this an uphill battle,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tweeted Tuesday. “Most of these Project Titan engineers now all focused on AI at Apple which is the right move.”
Apple shares rose about 1% on Tuesday. The stock is down about 5% year to date, but up 24% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500’s
SPX
6.5% gain in 2024 and 28% rise over the past year.