#Apple Car most likely won’t come before 2028: top analyst

A prominent Wall Street analyst says investors shouldn’t hold their breath for an Apple car any time soon.

Ming-Chi Kuo said in a research note this week that the market is “too bullish” on reports of Apple getting into the automotive game, and called the rumored 2024 rollout extremely ambitious.

Indeed, Kuo said that he believes the earliest consumers might see an automobile from the iPhone-maker is 2025, with 2028 looking more likely.

Reuters reported last week that Apple has set a goal of 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle. Central to Apple’s car ambitions is a new battery design that could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the EV’s range.

“It’s next level,” one person said of Apple’s battery technology. “Like the first time you saw the iPhone.”

The report made shares of car part manufacturers spike last week, but Kuo has cautioned that the movements appear to be “only speculations by the market and do not involve actual Apple car suppliers.”

Apple’s efforts to get into the car game, dubbed “Project Titan,” kicked off in 2014, but the company later drew back the effort to focus on software and reassess its goals. Apple veteran, Doug Field, a former Tesla executive who started his second stint with Apple in 2018, laid off 190 people from the team in 2019.