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Apple cars finally have a new development: Apple cars are positioned at the top end of the $100000 market and will launch their first electric car by the end of 2024 at the earliest. On May 4, according to the Financial Associated Press and other media reports, the development of Apple cars is under way, and the official release will still be at the end of 2025 or 2024. Apple cars are likely to be entrusted to Hon Hai Group, the long-term partner that assembles the iPhone, the parent company of Foxconn, in charge of the assembly and production of its cars. According to the report, industry insiders said that Apple will not launch electric vehicles for the mass market, and that its electric vehicles will be positioned as a high-end market of 100000 US dollars (660000 yuan) or more, competing with Tesla's Model S (official price is 88.999-1.05999 million yuan). The report also mentioned the materials made by Apple cars, including the use of a large number of metal materials such as titanium alloy and the use of iPhone to unlock without a key.

Separately, Bloomberg reported on May 3 that Apple has hired Desi Ujkashevic, a senior Ford executive, to take charge of Apple's electric car program, a move that means Apple is stepping up its efforts to develop electric vehicles again. Desi Ujkashevic joined Ford in 1991 and has 31 years of experience at Ford, where he has been involved in the engineering design of the interior, appearance, chassis and electrical components of a number of Ford models, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple did not respond to the above news, while Foxconn responded to China Business News: "do not comment on market rumors."

Data show that Hon Hai Group is the largest, fastest-growing and highest-rated international group in the field of 3C (computer, communications, consumer electronics) contract manufacturing in the world, and its companies are not only listed and traded on stock exchanges such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and London. it is also the largest enterprise in Taiwan. In March this year, at a presentation on investment legal person in the fourth quarter of 2021, Hon Hai Chairman Liu Yangwei said: as one of the main axes of development, Hon Hai will continue to expand its customer base and seek the participation of existing car factories and new car factories. And assist customers in mass production and expansion. It pointed out: "Hon Hai's electric vehicle cooperation has been on schedule, accelerating commercial conversion and mass production, the development of higher-value components and software is the focus of Hon Hai's 2022 EV development. By 2025, Hon Hai aims to have a 5% market share. The vehicle production target will be 500000 to 750000 vehicles, of which the revenue contribution of OEM is expected to be more than half. " In addition, Liu Yangwei also proposed that Foxconn's electric vehicle-related business camp should reach $35 billion (223 billion yuan) by 2026.

Foxconn's entry into the auto industry began in 2005, and then it was reported that Foxconn had contact with Geely Motor, Yulong Motor, Jianghuai Automobile, BAIC and other automakers, but Foxconn did not admit the rumors. It said it had "never started any car-building plan". It wasn't until the end of 2020 that Foxconn began to reveal that it would move into electric cars. In January 2021, Foxconn Technology Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Baiteng Motor and Nanjing Economic and technological Development Zone. The three parties worked together to promote mass production of Baiteng new energy vehicles and said that they would achieve mass production of M-Byte by the first quarter of 2022. However, the Foxconn-Baiteng partnership has been shelved because of the deterioration of Baiteng's financial situation. On October 18 of the same year, Foxconn launched three electric vehicles, including the electric buses Model T and SUV Model C, and the business luxury driving Model E. In November of the same year, Foxconn spent a lot of money to acquire the former GM plant.

There has been news of Apple's car-building plan before, and Apple has also introduced it to a number of automakers, including BMW, Daimler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and so on, but there has been no substantial progress. In retrospect, Apple's car-building plans have always been foggy. Apple's ambition to dominate the car industry was demonstrated as early as 2014, when Apple proposed the Titan Plan, which was the internal code name of Apple's car-building plan in 2014, led by Steve Zadesky, the leader of the original iPod team. Although Apple spent several years on the plan, the process did not go smoothly. Not only did Apple not build a car, but also there were repeated reports of "Titan Plan" layoffs. Apple was able to restart car-building when Doug Field, a former Apple executive, returned in 2018, but Doug then left, and in January 2019, Apple announced that it would fire 200 employees of the Titan program.

At the end of 2020, a number of media in the industry reported that Apple put forward stock requirements to Taiwan auto parts factories in Taiwan, such as Heda, the Federation of Trade, Heqin, Futian and so on, and other related manufacturers were also included in the first wave of the supply chain. Apple's first electric car, the Apple Car, was expected to be officially unveiled in the third quarter of 2021, but it was generally believed that it was unrealistic for Apple to launch the Apple Car in the third quarter of 2021. And pointed out that Apple will not be able to produce cars until 2024 at the earliest, and there has been little news about Apple cars since then. At the beginning of this year, some media said that Apple was looking for a group of auto parts manufacturers with mass production experience to provide core components for its cars. Apple expects to identify auto parts suppliers by the end of this year and begin comprehensive research and development, public car construction projects and mass production in the next two to three years. However, the launch of the Apple car team has been "disbanded" for some time. In March this year, Tianfeng International analyst Guo Mingyi said on Twitter that the Apple Car team had been disbanded for some time, and then on March 30, Apple's patent for "vehicle summoning in the mobile ecosystem" was announced. On April 14, the media reported that Apple's electric car Apple Car may be the same as Tesla. Adopt central integrated operating system (OS), and Korean factory assist in the development of field controller (Domain Control Unit) The self-driving sensor section of DCU). However, Apple officials have not made a clear response to the above news.

If the news is true, it means that Apple cars will make substantial progress. Judging from its price positioning, Apple cars will be priced at 660000 yuan or more, which means that Apple cars will be higher than traditional luxury car brands such as BBA, or close to brands such as Porsche. Of course, Apple cars still have no substantial progress at the moment, and it will take more time to verify whether this is the case in the end.

The mobile phone field and the automobile field were originally two different industries. Compared with making mobile phones, making cars is very "expensive", and the cost input is far higher than that of the mobile phone industry, but Apple is not the first technology company in the cross-border automobile field. In March last year, Xiaomi, a well-known domestic mobile phone manufacturer, also entered the automobile industry. Xiaomi announced that it would enter the car-building field. Xiaomi said this was the last major start-up project in Lei Jun's life. Willing to bet all his reputation, then on October 19, Xiaomi Group Chairman Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi's first model would be mass produced in the first half of 2024, and construction has begun on the site where Xiaomi's Beijing factory is located. In addition to Xiaomi, including Baidu, Ali, 360and oppo have joined the ranks of car building in different forms, and even Evergrande has entered the automobile industry across the border. Of course, the ranks of cross-border car construction are far more than these, such as the high-end intelligent pure electric car Zhiji jointly created by Ali, SAIC and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, Huawei and Changan Automobile, Ningde era to create new brands of smart cars, and so on.

Although Apple, Baidu, Ali, Xiaomi, 360and oppo have no experience in the automotive industry, the announcement of these brands to join the car-building plan has also caused a lot of shock in the industry. According to the current development trend, it can not be ruled out that there will be more car-building tracks in other areas in the future. As to whether Apple can successfully produce cars by the end of 2024 or 2025, no one can give a clear answer right now.

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