Tuesday was a good day to be a shareholder in any one of a number of electric vehicle (EV) stocks. Many rose higher on the day thanks to news of a potential monster rival's apparent delay in entering the market. High-end American EV maker Lucid Group (LCID 0.82%) enjoyed a more than 7% pop in share price, while Chinese peers Li Auto (LI 2.40%) and Xpeng (XPEV 0.98%) rose by a respective 3% and 4%.
The Apple Car rollout is apparently delayed
That eventual rival is none other than tech titan Apple (AAPL 1.05%), which for years has been hotly rumored to be developing an Apple Car. The latest scuttlebutt on what's sure to be a competitive EV is that its introduction is being delayed, and it won't be quite the whiz-bang vehicle the company originally hoped for.
Tuesday morning, Bloomberg, citing unidentified "people with knowledge of the project," published an article stating that Apple has pushed back the rollout of Apple Car until 2028. Previously, it aimed to get it on the streets by 2026.
Additionally, the first Apple Car will not be fully autonomous, as initially planned. Instead, the vehicle will boast a number of driver-assistance features comparable to current Tesla models, according to Bloomberg's sources. This will make it a Level 2+ vehicle, meaning that it will have some automated support for steering, brake, and/or acceleration functionalities.
All told, according to the broadly accepted Society of Automotive Engineers scale, there are six layers of vehicle automation, ranging from Level 0 to 5. The most advanced cars on the road today hover just under Level 3 (hence the Level 2+ designation for Tesla and the theoretical Apple Car).
Ever secretive, Apple has never acknowledged the existence of the Apple Car project, although details of the apparent effort have leaked numerous times over the years. It has also been tumultuous, according to several sources, with the project being helmed by different leaders and undergoing several modifications in strategy.
Apple has not yet officially commented on the Bloomberg report, nor is it likely to.
NASDAQ: LCID
Key Data Points
Not as powerful as feared
If and when Apple gets its first and signature EV on the road, no matter what, it'll be an instant competitor. Apple is a very well capitalized, powerful company, and every product it introduces gets a great deal of attention. That'll go double for its first effort in the vehicle sphere.
So Lucid, Li Auto, and likely every other EV maker was breathing a big sigh of relief on the news that Apple Car will, at best, be delayed and have a relatively limited feature set. The EV business is already very crowded with numerous effective competitors; companies like that don't want a muscular rival with a world-beating product.
