Chinese Automakers Shocked at Apple's Decision to Cancel Car Project
Apple's decision to cancel its electric vehicle project has surprised ambitious new Chinese automakers like Xiaomi, the South China Morning Post reports.
Yesterday, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed that after a decade of work and millions of dollars in development costs Apple has canceled its plans to bring an EV to market, moving many of the 2,000 staff working on the project to generative AI instead. The decision has come as a surprise to new tech-focused Chinese EV brands like Xiaomi, Li Auto, and Xpeng, who saw a future Apple car as one of their main rivals.
Xiaomi is one of China's biggest electronics companies and is best known for its line of smartphones. The company unveiled its first EV, the SU7, late last year and it is set to go on sale after further testing. The project required over $1.4 billion in development and over 3,400 engineers.
Founder and chairman Lei Jun today posted on Weibo that he was "very shocked" by the news of Apple's decision to cancel its EV. He added that he "knows deeply how difficult it is to make cars," but Xiaomi has made an "unshakeable strategic choice" to move into EVs. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Chinese EV maker Xpeng, expressed similar disbelief that Apple is abandoning its car plans.
Li Xiang, CEO of Beijing-based EV maker Li Auto, remarked on Weibo that Apple's decision to shift emphasis from EVs to AI was "absolutely right." "AI will become the top-level entrance for all devices, services, applications and transactions, in which Apple should stay on top," he added.
Chinese brands possess a rapidly growing proportion of global EV sales. Last year, China's BYD overtook Tesla as the world's top EV manufacturer.
Popular Stories
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
In his Powe...
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models.
"All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
"Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today.
"I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...
We are still waiting for the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate to come out, so the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week or two away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April.
Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far.
iOS 26.3
iPhone to Android Transfer Tool
iOS 26.3 makes it easier...
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
