Apple is said to be working towards having its own car on the market by 2024. The car would feature self-driving technology and be equipped with new battery technology.
Reuters writes that Apple has been designing its own car to a greater or lesser extent since 2014. After Doug Field, who previously worked for Apple and later for Tesla, returned to Apple in 2018 as vice president, the company is said to have made enough progress in creating a car for consumers.
Own car
Unlike Waymo, Google’s sister company that wants to use self-driving cars as taxis, Apple focuses consumers that want to own their car. Apple’s strategy would be to develop a car with much cheaper batteries and greater range.
How Apple is going to make the logistical step from building small electronics to building whole cars is not yet clear. The company will have to sell hundreds of thousands of cars in order to make a profit.
New battery technology
According to Reuters sources, Apple would like to make a difference in battery technology. The company is working on a monocell design, where the individual cells in the battery are larger and thus more efficient. As a result, the car should have a larger range.
Apple is also working on a battery based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Such a battery is said to be less likely to overheat and therefore safer than other lithium-ion batteries.
Battery R&D in full swing
Apple is not the only company working hard on battery development. In September, during the Battery Day presentation, Tesla presented a new battery design that would be cheaper and offer greater capacity. Recently, battery startup QuantumScape announced that the company had made a ‘breakthrough’ in solid-state battery development.
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