A new report says that the Apple Car will arrive in 2024 with a ‘monocell’ battery design

Earlier today the Economic Daily News claimed the long-rumored “Apple Car” is running at least two years ahead of schedule and will be released in the third quarter of 2021. Now  Reuters — referencing two unnamed “people familiar with the matter” — makes the more feasible prediction that the tech giant plans to begin production on an Apple-branded self-driving vehicle starting in 2024.

The article says that central to the company’s strategy is a new “monocle” battery design that could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range, according to a third person who has purportedly seen Apple’s battery design.

I’ve long doubted that the company would build a car from scratch, and the Reuters’ report offers some insight into this. To wit:

It remains unclear who would assemble an Apple-branded car, but sources have said they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles. And there is still a chance Apple will decide to reduce the scope of its efforts to an autonomous driving system that would be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker, rather than the iPhone maker selling an Apple-branded car, one of the people added.

Apparently, the “Apple Car” will be self-driving, as well as electric Reuters sas that the vehicle might feature multiple lidar sensors for scanning different distances, another person said.