September 30th news, according to Taiwan media reports, industry news shows that Apple will reorganize the Apple Car team at the end of this year, restarting the " Titan Project (Project Titan )" that has been buried for a long time to build electric vehicles, and is expected to be mass-produced in 2025.
The industry predicts that Apple electric vehicles will be outsourced OEM, and Hon Hai and automobile OEM giant Magna (Magna) are the most popular companies to win orders.
data shows that since Apple launched the "Titan Plan" in 2014, the process of developing electric car has not been smooth. After many strategic changes and senior management changes, the team even disbanded for a while, leaving Apple Car in a stage of "thunder and no rain", but Apple has not completely given up its car manufacturing plan and is about to rebuild a new team.
A mainland analyst revealed that although Apple's original Apple Car team has been dissolved, in order to achieve the goal of mass production in 2025, it is necessary to reorganize the team within the next three to six months. It is very likely that a new Apple Car team will be established again by the end of this year, and the supply chain will also be reselected.
Analysts expect that Apple Car will be launched between 2025 and 2027. The key factor in its success is not hardware, but big data and artificial intelligence , which is an area in which Apple's existing products have not yet shown a clear competitive advantage.
As for who will take the Apple Car OEM order that the outside world is most concerned about, from the current information of all parties, Apple may entrust long-term partner Hon Hai to take action. Hon Hai has previously obtained a North American electric vehicle production base. The outside world interprets this move as a preparation for winning the order of Apple Car.
It is reported that Hon Hai is currently working with Lordstown in the North American market, and the two parties will produce electric pickup truck Endurance in the second half of the year. In addition, the PEAR model jointly developed by Hon Hai and another new car manufacturer Fisker is also continuing to advance. It is planned to be mass-produced in 2024. Since PEAR is a affordable model, Fiker estimates that the annual output will be at least 250,000 vehicles. It can be seen that Hon Hai's demand for automotive electronics and modules in the North American electric vehicle market is becoming increasingly large.
Hon Hai Chairman Liu Yangwei said before that considering the large demand for automotive electronics in the North American market, Hon Hai will expand the scale of Mexican automotive factories by 2022 to meet customer needs.
Industry insiders revealed that Apple is also contacting traditional car manufacturers to undertake Apple Car OEM orders, including Porsche exclusive OEM factory Magna is also one of the targets. Magna itself has a foundation in OEM and has production bases in North America, Asia and Europe. Its Taiwan supply chain is Jin Guoguang, which mainly supplies on-board lenses, and has achieved results in shipping in European and American car manufacturers.
On the other hand, the market also named mainland Apple OEM Luxshare, which also has the opportunity to enter Apple Car OEM. However, some analysts believe that Luxshare's layout in the electric vehicle field started late, and the group's supply chain is not as strong as Hon Hai, so it may not be able to catch up with the first wave of orders in the early stage of mass production.
In terms of other suppliers, Taiwanese media believe that Taiwanese manufacturers Hongzhun, GIS, Zhengda, Yisheng and Guangyu all have plans to enter the Apple Car supply chain.
Among them, Hongzhun plays the role of providing key lightweight electric vehicles, developing automotive aluminum alloy die-casting technology, which has been successfully produced in the mainland's Shenyang factory and has been adopted by European car manufacturers. It is expected that if Apple wants to use aluminum alloy shells in the future, Hongzhun is expected to be included in the supply chain.
cockpit related applications are the key to building Apple Car unique, and related projects are the strengths of GIS and Zhengda. Especially electric vehicle instruments and displays are moving towards large-screen design, touch function has become the most important human-computer interactive interface for operating all advanced functions. With high requirements for technology, stability and reliability, GIS already has energy to supply automotive touch panels. The company's capital expenditure this year is about NT$5 billion NT$4, mainly used in the meta-universe and automotive-related products.
glass factory Zhengda is a "magic" who creates a sense of luxury in cars. It develops smart cockpit dashboard 3D glass, presents a high-quality design through unique technology, wins orders for European luxury car manufacturers, and enters the Tesla supply chain, and is expected to become a key partner of Apple Car.
Editor: Xinzhixun-Linzi Source: Economic Daily
