Apple car: Electric vehicle debut postponed to 2028

Apple has pushed back the launch date for its long-rumoured electric vehicle and scaled back its self-driving features as the iPhone maker struggles with the shift from gadgets to cars.

The Californian tech giant has delayed its internal target to launch a car from 2026 to 2028, according to Bloomberg. The vehicle will also have fewer advanced autonomous driving capabilities than first hoped.

The revisions come as Apple finds the push into cars more challenging than it initially hoped.

Known internally as Project Titan, Apple has been working on the secretive electric car project since 2014. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on development, according to reports, but is yet to come up with a prototype.

Its internal team has also gone through multiple restructurings and leadership changes.

Dan Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, said developing an electric car had proved “arduous” for Apple.

The $3 trillion company has now downgraded its ambitions for the car’s self-driving capabilities at launch. The car will feature what is known as “level two” autonomous driving features – similar to Tesla’s Autopilot technology.

This means the car can perform some manoeuvres on its own, such as braking, lane changing, parking or driving on a motorway, but the driver remains in control.

Apple had hoped to launch a “level four” car, where the car drives by itself under most conditions, although the human driver can still take control of the vehicle.

The levels of autonomous driving are set by the Society of Automotive Engineers and are widely used as the standard in the industry.

The company is now considering offering extra autonomous features as future upgrades once the car is released.