Apple has abandoned their Project Titan, their project to make an EV. Many people weren’t even aware that Apple was working on an EV but this has been going on for many years, I believe around ten. In this time they apparently couldn’t even get a prototype going. Redacted just did a piece on this failure.
I thought this was worth mentioning as a data point on the EV industry in general. Doing EVs is not easy. Starting from scratch is a huge project. Converting an existing line of ICE cars to electric will, at best, produce a very sub-optimal vehicle. Historically, virtually everyone predicted that Tesla would fail but they didn’t.
Today, Toyota continues to spread FUD about EVs. Ford and GM have cut back/delayed their EVs. Stellantis is an interesting case as it is really a financial partnership of multiple vehicle manufacturers. Various members of that partnership seem serious about EVs but the President of Stellantis continues to say EVs don’t make sense. Other big players such as VW are seriously in trouble in the EV space. But, EV sales continue to increase in the world. Thus, someone is buying them.
My guess is that Tesla will continue to increase sales — clearly the Cybertruck is a success and Redwood (the under $25,000 small EV) is likely to sell like hotcakes. BYD and Tesla will continue to play tag for the biggest EV maker. Based on what is being said, I think Volvo will capture a big chunk of the EV market. As for “the big three”, I believe they will eventually figure out how to make EVs but it isn’t clear in will be in time for them to remain being called the big three. And, as for products from Japan, I don’t see anyone taking EVs seriously.
