- Apple is said to be ending its electric-car project that has been a decade in the making.
- Executives broke the news to 2,000 employees on the electric-vehicle team, sources told Bloomberg.
Apple is abandoning a decadelong effort to manufacture its own electric car, sources familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.
The Apple executives Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch internally broke the news on Tuesday to nearly 2,000 employees working on the electric-vehicle team, known as the Special Projects Group, the sources told the outlet.
The executives said many of the employees involved in the project would be moved to the company's artificial-intelligence division to focus on its generative-AI projects, Bloomberg reported.
Several hundred hardware engineers and car designers who were part of the team might be able to apply for other open roles at Apple, Bloomberg reported, adding that an undisclosed number of layoffs was imminent.
Apple's reported decision to sunset its EV project came after the tech company announced it was pushing back the car's launch date to 2028 amid production challenges.
Last month, Apple was reported to be pivoting away from its intended goal of building a fully autonomous vehicle and more toward a less-ambitious design with limited self-driving features. The revamped EV — categorized as Level 2+ autonomy — would've self-parked, stayed centered on a lane, and allowed drivers to take their hands off the wheel.
Before the project ended, Apple executives expressed concerns about the car's profit margins, Bloomberg reported. The company was spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on the project and planned on pricing the vehicle at about $100,000, the report said.
EV companies have struggled in recent months as a wave of early adopters has dried up, leading to slowing sales growth as vehicle prices remain stubbornly high.
Last week, the EV manufacturer Rivian reported a loss of $5.4 billion in revenue despite delivering twice as many EVs in 2023 compared with the previous year, according to its latest Q4 earnings.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Do you work on Apple's EV team and have a story to share? Contact the BI reporter Aaron Mok at amok@insider.com.