Apple’s electric vehicle runs at least two years ahead of schedule and will be launched in the third quarter of 2021, according to Taiwan Daily economic news, which cites anonymous directors of Taiwanese producers.
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The report claims that Taiwanese manufacturers are preparing to produce components for the “Apple Car” as early as the second quarter of next year, adding that Apple has secretly tested dozens of prototype vehicles on the road in California. Apple received a permit from the California DMV to test self-driving vehicles in 2017 and was seen using Lexus SUVs equipped with LiDAR equipment that year.
While many sources have claimed that Apple Car will be launched between 2023 and 2025, including analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the report mentions an anonymous director to a major Taiwanese manufacturer who said that Apple aims to launch in September 2021.
Although anything is possible, the previous time period is debatable, especially due to the impact of the pandemic. Earlier this month, a DigiTimes The report claimed that Apple was in “preliminary” negotiations with car electronics suppliers, suggesting that its vehicle design was still in its infancy. The report added that Apple’s chip maker partner Apple is working with Apple on a “standalone chip.”
Over the years, reports have stopped on Apple developing a full-fledged vehicle or working on artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies for vehicles in general. Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, recently took over the project, according to him BloombergMark Gurman.
Given that automakers often announce new vehicles years in advance, one possibility is that Apple Car will be previewed at the end of 2021, but will not be launched. For now, however, the report should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Daily economic news has a mixed track record with Apple rumors. The publication revealed exactly that Apple will launch a reused iPhone 8 in March 2020, almost a year before the unveiling of the second-generation iPhone SE, and also caught the 11-inch iPad Pro. On the contrary, the publication reported inaccurately that a high-end gaming Mac will debut at WWDC 2020 and that AirPods Pro will come in several colors.