+1. I wonder if this is another Google Search situation, where car manufacturers have agreed to pay Apple billions of dollars every year in exchange for Apple not developing EV.
I’m skeptical that established automakers even felt threatened. For one thing, manufacturers seemed to overestimate present demand for high-end, expensive EVs (no way Apple was going to build a lower-tier “economy” car). Also, companies just entering the automotive industry (Tesla, Rivian etc.) seem to face loads of challenges that long-lived ICE manufacturers have solved a long time ago.
It would be hard for a publicly traded company to conceal such payments