Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives claims that the Apple Car will be released by 2026.
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Apple has yet to confirm rumors that it is developing an Apple Car. However, it is an open secret, as the company has applied for hundreds of related patents, including a recent one involving seat belts.
The company also recently tied up with a self-driving testing facility in Arizona. In addition, there have been periodic reports of significant changes to the project's personnel, such as the loss of managers, engineers , or even the reshuffling of the entire team.
Speaking to CNBC on Friday morning, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said the only question regarding the Apple Car is “when it will be released, not if it will be released.”
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Ives has said exactly that before. In 2021, he wrote in a note to investors that it was a matter of “when, not if” Apple would enter the electric vehicle market.
Wedbush's Ives was responding to reports at the time about Apple's various discussions with potential partners, including Hyundai and Nissan separately.
The analyst described these discussions as a “dating game,” then saying—in February 2021—that there was at least an 85% chance that Apple would officially announce a strategic automotive partnership within the next three to six months.
That obviously didn't happen, but now Ives is predicting the Apple Car will launch by 2026, which confirms some previous reports from Ming-Chi Kuo that said the projected 2025 release date had been pushed back.
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Apple has reportedly been working on the Apple Car for many years, possibly starting in 2014, before the release of the first Apple Watch. It would seem that nearly a decade of work on the as-yet-unannounced Apple Car will be completed.
Information source: appleinsider.com
