While speaking with Reuters about the future of self-driving cars, Nobel Prize winner Akira Yoshino revealed that he expects Apple to lead the next generation of electric vehicle batteries.
According to Yoshino, he predicts the tech giant will announce the Apple Car as soon as next year.
“Tesla has their own independent strategy. The one to look out for is Apple,” Yoshino told Reuters. “What will they do? I think they may announce something soon. And what kind of car would they announce? What kind of battery? They probably want to get in around 2025. If they do that, I think they have to announce something by the end of this year. That’s just my own personal hypothesis.”
Apple has been reportedly working on a self-driving car since as far back as 2014, when nearly 1,000 car experts and engineers began developing an electric vehicle under the codename “Project Titan.”
Earlier this year, reports claimed that Apple had tapped Hyundai to help create an electric vehicle, but the negotiations stalled in February. Shortly after Hyundai dropped out, Apple was rumored to be nearing a deal with Kia to handle the production side of things, with one report claiming the Cupertino company would invest in the region of $3.6 billion into Kia for the project.
The months since have been headlined by contradictory estimates regarding the arrival of the Apple Car, with some analysts predicting a target year of 2024, while other reports suggest that an Apple self-driving vehicle is at least five to seven years away.
