It’s been a stop-start decade for Apple’s electric car dream: swirling rumors, hires and layoffs, acquisitions, and doubt. Finally, though, this past week, it emerged that Apple will put the project out of its misery.
By itself, this would be important but not existential. Tech companies venture into and then retreat from new fields all the time. And while Apple sunk billions into its EV project, it is certainly a company that has the money to spare. Last summer, Apple reported sitting on a pile of almost $167 billion in cash — one of the largest such stashes around. But it’s an odd moment for Apple. The cancellation of its EV is the third prong in a trifecta of — well, not failure perhaps, but certainly not the roaring success it has become accustomed to.
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