Apple reportedly cancels electric car project: What this means for AAPL stock

investing.com:

Investing.com — Apple's reported decision earlier this week to scrap its plans to create an electric car could help boost the tech giant's push to develop its artificial intelligence capabilities, an analyst at Edward Jones has told Investing.com.

An Apple Electric Car

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg first reported that California-based Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is canceling its decade-long, multi-billion dollar effort to carve out a place in the market for battery-powered vehicles.

Code-named Project Titan, the initiative was launched around 2014, with Apple eventually hoping to produce a fully autonomous car that would be guided by voice commands. However, leadership changes and strategic overhauls weighed on the project's progress.

More recently, high prices for electric vehicles and a relative lack of general charging infrastructure have led to a slowdown in consumer demand. The trend, as well as supply chain constraints, have persuaded car groups Ford (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) to shift their focus away from electric vehicles and towards hybrid options. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) — considered one of the foremost EV players — has warned that sales growth would be «notably lower» this year.

What Analysts are Saying

Apple announced the end of its EV ambitions in an internal disclosure on Tuesday, various media sources reported. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, an executive involved with the project, shared the decision to the nearly 2,000 staffers working on the effort, Bloomberg reported.

Reports also said that employees on the car team would be shifted to Apple's artificial intelligence unit, where they would focus on developing generative AI — a nascent