Wired
Apple’s “Project Titan” seems to be coming back soon. Recently, according to four people familiar with the matter, Apple has been developing electric driving technology for a long time and plans to officially launch its electric vehicles in 2024. Among them, the breakthrough innovative battery technology developed by its own company will be the biggest highlight.
A few days ago, according to insiders, Apple has conducted preliminary negotiations with China’s CATL and BYD on the supply of electric vehicle batteries. The source said that on the one hand, Apple is independently researching and developing innovative battery technology, and on the other hand, it plans to use lithium iron phosphate batteries. Since the raw material of lithium iron phosphate batteries is iron, expensive nickel and cobalt are not needed, so it can better control costs. , And related technologies are the core expertise of BYD and CATL.
In addition, Apple also hopes that its cooperating battery suppliers can set up factories in the United States in order to further reduce costs. CATL and BYD have not yet reached a consensus due to cost and situation considerations. In this regard, the three parties declined to comment.
Once the news was exposed, the stock prices of CATL and BYD both rose. As one of the world’s important manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate batteries, BYD’s stock price rose by more than 8%.
As the core competitor of electric vehicles, lithium iron phosphate batteries can not only reduce manufacturing costs, but also achieve corresponding high performance. They have natural advantages in terms of safety and stability, including mainstream Tesla. New energy vehicle companies are currently using the battery on a large scale.
At the beginning of the year, CATL announced that it had invested and built a lithium iron phosphate project with an annual output of 80,000 tons in Sichuan. In addition, a large-scale automobile battery project will be built next to the Shanghai Tesla China manufacturing plant.
Reuters learned from insiders that the core of Apple’s electric vehicle project strategy is an innovative “single battery” technology. The design will increase the number of “single batteries” by optimizing the materials and packaging of the battery. Volume, which means that the internal space of the battery pack will be able to fill more active materials, thereby increasing the cruising range.
In fact, as early as 2014, Apple launched the “Project Titan” and was determined to get involved in the field of electric vehicles. However, due to market reasons and the failure of its own research and development of physical cars at that time, Apple switched to the rudder and made strategic adjustments, shifting from physical car manufacturing to the development of relevant carriers and technologies for autonomous vehicles.
Until 2018, foreign media continued to report that Apple was “poaching” Tesla employees, including manufacturing, security and software engineers, and supply chain experts, and even the former Tesla senior vice president and chief engineering officer. Field (Doug Field) also returned to Apple.
However, according to insiders, many senior executives of Apple’s autopilot department have left since this year. Including Dave Scott, who is in charge of the automotive robotics-related technical team, and Jaime Waydo, who leads the self-driving car safety team. Frequent personnel changes inevitably make the industry dream about it. At the same time It also brings many uncertainties to Apple.
According to data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple has 68 self-driving test cars on the road since 2019, and it took Tesla nearly 20 years to achieve today’s results. Even for a company with strong financial resources like Apple, developing an advanced operating system and brand-new battery technology and building a complex and complete manufacturing network around the world cannot be completed overnight.
In this regard, a person involved in the Titan project said, “If there is only one company on the planet that has the resources to do all this, it is likely to be Apple.”
In addition to battery supply issues, Apple has also negotiated with Korean Hyundai Group and Japanese and Nissan automakers for car manufacturing. As Apple seeks OEM demand, Hyundai said that becoming an Apple OEM will reduce the self-worth of Hyundai’s brand.
Nissan said that it is not their point of interest to manufacture Apple-branded cars, and that these negotiations have been temporarily shelved. As we all know, the foundry giant Foxconn is an important foundry partner of Apple. Whether Foxconn, which has already cooperated with many auto companies, will continue to manufacture cars for Apple in the future, has also attracted the attention of the industry.
So far, the sales of electric vehicles in the United States have accounted for only 2% of national vehicles. US President Biden believes that in this century electric vehicles are the key to addressing global warming and reducing carbon emissions in the future. In Biden’s $1.7 trillion bill for infrastructure construction, Biden plans to build no less than 500,000 trolley car charging stations across the United States by 2030, to provide tax incentives for people who buy electric vehicles, and to provide electric vehicles. Automakers allocate funds and related incentives to promote the development of electric vehicles in the United States in the future.
Original title: Apple’s electric car may come out in 2024, battery technology innovation, and BYD Ningde era has entered into supply chain negotiations
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