Apple’s Titan Project to Launch EVs by 2025
By: S R Vivek
Tags: Strategy, Tesla, Business, Apple, Electric Car

Speculating Apple, the i-phone maker

Battery & Charging

The basic element of electric cars is the battery. After Tesla Motors’s battery day, they are definitely leading. Apple has announced a mono-cell LFP battery technology. Mono-cell is the keyword here as LFP is currently being done by Tesla Motors as well in their Model 3.

The batteries of current EVs are a culmination of hundreds of batteries. It helps in longer range but makes supercharging cumbersome. A mono-cell would be a new technology entrant & could solve that problem. Autonomous Driving

The autonomous driving element is a combination of software & hardware. Imagine, how a baby learns to walk. A baby develops vision, then peripheral vision, understands where the baby is and where it wants to go and then begins the journey.

The EVs work in a similar way. Eyes are LIDAR, sensor fusion is peripheral vision, localisation and path planning are going from A-B. You can read a detailed article here from William Law.

Apple is a contrarian company. How? Just look at how Mac O.S have every feature starkly opposite to Windows. I have no doubt that Apple would come up with a revolutionary software, with the given engineering talent they have. Operations of being an Automaker

a. Upon looking at past operation practices like the Macbook chip from Intel which did not change until very recently, it is evident that Apple will rely on suppliers for the car parts.

b. Operations of mechanical manufacturing is capital intensive and the margins are low. Apple has turned huge profits selling a premium product like i-phone & Macbooks but the question remains if they can sell cars the same way? (answered below) The product psyche

Phones and laptops are an extension of human beings, the first penetration level of artificial intelligence if you may call it. Cars are not a big part of our lives, they help you go from A-B and that’s it. How does this matter? A super-premium product no matter how many miles Apple promises might be very difficult to democratize because the world doesn’t care as much about cars as much as they do about phones & MacBooks.

Why it matters for Apple?

EVs are profitable when democratized, why else do you think Tesla’s timeline had a sports car Roadster in 2006 & Model 3 in 2018 on it. The Ecosystem for EVs

Apple is a believer in building ecosystems, from software to hardware, now including chips. The marginal costs argument aside, it allows the company to control the product. The ecosystem for EVs involves the battery, car, software, OS and a full-fledged charging network. Maybe they come up with travel compatible battery packs with energy reserves but they still would have to build charging station networks across the target market. Can they do it?

Of course, with a reserve cash capital of $191 billion, Apple has the means. Another way to look at it is to license battery & autonomous driving technology(given they have one) to other automakers. I hardly think that would happen though since it does not align with Apple’s values.

Proof?

6.The Tim Cook effect

Tim Cook is an operations genius, that is why he was brought into Apple in the first place. He might not be the charismatic Steve Jobs, but he is Tim Cook. It means if he was leading Tesla’s operations efforts, Tesla would meet even the deadlines promised by Elon Musk.

Having said that, there are more chances of Apple realizing their Titan project on the factory floor than building a mono-cell as of now.

Conclusion

The automobile market is highly competitive, capital intensive and fewer margins. Tesla turned up a profit after 17 years. Can Apple enter the market & disrupt? Definitely yes. The stock price jumped more than 3.5% as soon as the news broke out but that is not why I am backing Titan.

We are talking about the company who made the whole world complaint about removing the standard earphone jacks from our mobiles, the competitors followed suit. How many of you miss It? Apple removed the home button from i-phones followed by introducing face unlock, it wasn’t the first to do so but it sure was the first company to make it a norm. The same goes for AirPods too.

The next target of Apple is “privacy”. I understand Apple has always been privacy spooky but it is now on the agenda to make the world aware about it. It could be the end of advertising as we know it(you heard it here first).

The past is evidence of how disruptive Apple has been, the future cannot be predicted but Apple can be relied upon to deliver.