What happened
Shares of Apple (AAPL +0.11%) climbed as much as 5% today on continued momentum from a report yesterday that the company is planning to make an electric vehicle (EV) by 2024. As of 12:05 p.m. EST, the stock has given up some of those gains but was still up 2%.
So what
Investors have been hearing rumors around the Mac-maker's Project Titan for years, and the initiative has suffered from many setbacks and pivots. Reuters reported yesterday that Apple is making progress and moving forward with the plans, which will include revolutionary battery technology and lidar sensors. Apple's current plan is to build a vehicle targeting regular consumers, as opposed to autonomous taxis that could potentially be used for a ride-sharing service, according to the report.
Image source: Apple.
Apple is said to be working on breakthrough battery technology that could bring down costs while boosting range. Hefty battery costs have long been a hurdle for electric-vehicle adoption, but overall battery-pack prices have finally declined to the milestone of $100 per kWh this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The company is still expected to tap third-party contract manufacturers to produce the mythical Apple Car.
Now what
EV stocks have been skyrocketing all year, including any company even tangentially related to the sector, such as charging networks, lidar suppliers, battery specialists, and more. Apple has started to incorporate lidar sensors into its mobile gadgets for augmented-reality (AR) use cases but is expected to utilize incumbent lidar suppliers. That speculation is boosting shares of lidar specialists like Luminar and Velodyne.
If Apple does indeed launch a consumer-oriented car in 2024, that will be about a decade since the project was created.
