Apple iCar coming soon… sort of

Apple spent a decade and billions of dollars trying to build a car before pulling the plug, but the closest thing Australians will get to an ‘iCar’ is about to land in Mitsubishi showrooms.

The all-new ASX VR-e electric SUV is built by Foxtron, the Taiwanese EV maker part-owned by iPhone assembler Foxconn, and it arrives Down Under in late 2026.

Let’s get one thing straight up front: Apple had nothing to do with this car. But the company that was expected to build the iCar for Apple certainly did.

The ASX VR-e is designed and built by Foxtron, a Taiwanese EV outfit established in 2020 as a joint venture between Foxconn and local car-maker Yulon.

Foxconn holds roughly 45.6 per cent, Yulon about 43.8%.

Foxconn – formally Hon Hai Precision Industry – is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer and the outfit that screws together most of the world’s iPhones, plus a mountain of Sony PlayStations and other intricate consumer electronics.

Foxtron’s pitch is to do for car brands what Foxconn does for tech brands: engineer and build the product, then let the badge on the front deal with sales and service.

Mitsubishi signed up for exactly that arrangement in May 2025, and the ASX VR-e is the first fruit of the deal.

It’s a well-trodden path right now, with legacy Japanese and Korean brands partnering with Chinese and Taiwanese specialists to get affordable, tech-heavy EVs to market without forking out for a dedicated factory.

Which brings us to the now-axed Apple iCar.

Apple kicked off its secretive car program, codenamed Project Titan, around 2014. At its peak it reportedly employed about 5000 people, and the target pinballed between a Tesla rival and a steering wheel-free robotaxi before Apple executives killed it in February, 2024.

Roughly 1400 staff were still on the project when the plug was pulled, with many shuffled across to generative AI.

So Apple never got its car but ironically the company that builds its phones did.

Expect at least one owner to swap the three diamonds for a bitten apple – the spiritual successor to every Commodore that ever wore a Chevy bowtie.

Phone links aside, the ASX VR-e is a Pininfarina-styled small SUV measuring 4315mm long, 1885mm wide and 1535mm tall on a 2800mm wheelbase – roughly BYD Atto 3 and Kia EV3 territory.

Despite the name, it shares nothing with the petrol ASX.

Four grades are offered in Australia: LS, Aspire and Exceed with a single rear-mounted 171kW/350Nm electric motor (0-100km/h in 6.8 seconds), and the flagship GSR, which adds a front motor for 342kW and 700Nm.

The flagship GSR model is good for a 3.9sec 0-100km/h sprint, making it the fastest-accelerating Mitsubishi ever officially sold in Australia. Yes, that includes every Lancer Evolution.

All grades use a 57.7-kilowatt-hour LFP battery. WLTP range is 403km for the LS, 398km for the Aspire, 380km for the Exceed and 328km for the GSR.

DC charging peaks at 134kW (10-80 per cent in about 30 minutes), AC tops out at 6.6kW, and vehicle-to-load is standard – via an adaptor cable you plug into the outside of the vehicle.

Fittingly for a car with consumer electronics roots, there’s a 15.6-inch touchscreen, a 9.2-inch digital driver display and over-the-air updates – but also a row of physical buttons for climate and demisters.

Mitsubishi also says the suspension dampers and steering have been specifically tuned for Australian roads.

It’s covered by Mitsubishi’s 10-year/200,000km conditional warranty, plus an eight-year/160,000km battery warranty.

If you’re hoping for an actual iCar badge in Australia, there’s a wrinkle there too.

Chinese giant Chery launched an EV brand called iCar in China in 2023, specialising in boxy, Jimny-meets-Defender style electric SUVs. But in April 2025 the brand was renamed iCaur for overseas markets due to trademark reasons – and it was reported at the time that Apple owns the iCar trademark.

iCaur has since confirmed it will launch in Australia in early 2027, with the V25 electric SUV the first model. So Australia will get an iCar of sorts – it just has to spell it differently.

Before you scoff at a phone company building cars, take a look at China.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi sold more than 400,000 cars in 2025 and is targeting 550,000 in 2026. Its YU7 SUV was China’s best-selling SUV in January 2026 with almost 38,000 deliveries.

Foxconn is doubling down too. Just this week it agreed to pay ¥115 billion ($US727 million) for a 50 per cent stake in Mitsubishi Electric’s automotive parts business – a separate company to Mitsubishi Motors, despite the shared name – with the aim of developing EV platforms in Japan.

Pricing hasn’t been confirmed. In Taiwan the equivalent model starts at about $30K, while New Zealand pricing points to something closer to $45,000-$48,000 here.

That number will decide whether this Apple-adjacent EV is an Atto 3 and EV3 rival or whether it sits a few rungs higher in the EV pecking order.

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