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- Apple’s cars are proving popular with potential owners even before they hit the road, according to a survey.
- The strategic vision is that more buyers will consider a car made by Apple than Tesla.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook has hinted at building a car for years, but no firm plans have been announced.
Apple’s cars appear to be a more popular option than Tesla’s, although the iPhone maker doesn’t know production plans.
A survey of 200,000 new car owners by Strategic Vision placed Apple third on the brand list, with 26% saying they “like” the Apple brand and would consider buying a car if it made one.
The company ranked behind Toyota and Honda, and ahead of Tesla, Lexus and BMW in its survey of more than 45 brands.
According to the survey, more than half of Tesla owners plan to buy an Apple car in the future.
Apple had the highest “quality perception”, at 24% compared to Toyota’s 15% and Tesla’s 11%. But a further 34% said they did not know enough about the car to make a judgement.
“Of course, what Apple ultimately delivers in terms of styling, powertrain, product and other key features will ultimately determine the level of demand among car buyers,” said Alexander Edwards of Strategic Vision.
“But their brand awareness and reputation provides a great platform for automotive manufacturers to promote themselves to this base.”
Apple hasn’t made any announcements about manufacturing a car, but has hinted at building one under the code name “Project Titan.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Stephen Lamb / Reuters
The idea was first floated by CEO Tim Cook in a 2017 Bloomberg interview, The New York Times reported, adding that he is delaying plans for other automakers to focus on driving technology.
Last year, Cook told The Times about Apple’s interest in building autonomous vehicles, and he also expressed his admiration for Tesla.
“An autonomous car is a robot and so there’s a lot of things you can do autonomously. We’ll see what Apple does,” Cook told the Sway podcast.
“We love integrating hardware, software and services and finding the intersection of those because we think that’s where the magic happens.”
However, Cook admitted that many of the company’s ideas “will never see the light of day.”
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