Tech

No Apple Car Coming Before 2020

Brian McNeill
First Posted: Jun 03, 2016 05:52 AM EDT

Apple does have plans to unravel an electric car of their own though it remains murky on when the Cupertino company will actually unravel it to the public.

Right now, Tesla seems to be the company on the right track and are in fact considering Apple as a ‘threat’ in the event that the much talked about Apple Car does become a reality.

This was bared no less by Tesla CEO Elon Musk who is aware of Apple’s plan to unveil their electric cars by 2019.

“Apple will “probably make a good car and be successful,” Mr. Musk said at Vox Media Inc.’s Code Conference. “They should have embarked on [the car] project sooner.”

Per the Wall Street Journal, Apple was widely believed to busy on an electric car project, something that was said to be on course for a 2019 release. To date, Apple has yet to confirm whether they are in the process of actually building an electric-powered vehicle that is codenamed “Titan”.

The bulk of Apple's car research and development is thought to be taking place in secretive buildings in Sunnyvale, California, where late night "motor noises" have been heard, per Mac Rumors.

While the electric car market seems to be pretty open right now which gives Apple ample space to carve its niche, Oppenheimer analyst questions the ‘experience’ angle despite the Cupertino company armed with the proper money and resources.

"Clearly they have the pockets. Clearly the opportunity is there. My big worry is doing they actually have the experience to enter that market," Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz said in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch" .

From all indications, Uerkwitz is not that confident of Apple’s chances though it may be constrained to the early part of their entry if it does happen. One thing that he singles out is that the market is big enough and something that Tesla cannot solely hold exclusive for long.

While Apple could kick off its electric car campaign by at least aiming for a 1% share, Uerkwtiz believes that such more issues could eventually crop up moving forward. That includes possible twists involving distribution and supply management rows.

"There's supply chain issues, I think you've got to get scale and so forth. It's very capital intensive. I wouldn't expect a positive (return on investment) for many, many years," said Uerkwitz.

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