Because manufacturing your own car in large quantities is very difficult. Tesla is a good example on how difficult it is to scale up production numbers. And even though the market / products themselves are changing rapidly the required expertise for a mass production of cars remains the same. I think an acquisition would be slightly more realistic. But has Apple ever acquired an entire product line? I don't think that's in their DNA (EDIT: Beats being one notable and recent exception...).
I agree with your conclusion, but I think your analysis is dead wrong. I don't think Apple would have problems manufacturing cars at scale. They have virtually unlimited money to aquire people with the know how, and to invest in factories. And they have lots of experience with manufacturing already. Sure, cars are different from consumer electronics, but not in any insurmountable way.
The real reason I think Apple would pull the plug on it's car project, is if they believe we are about to move to a transportation as a service world. Ride sharing and self driving cars are trends that point in that direction. Apple is a (consumer) product company. Their internal structure is set up to make the best consumer products and sell them directly to consumers. They are not set up to be a services company. Being a (successful) services company is to some extent antithetical to being a successful product company. Apple knows this.
>Sure, cars are different from consumer electronics, but not in any insurmountable way.
Perhaps not "insurmountable"...
...but you realize that what Apple currently manufactures is equivalent to one single, near-insignificant component of what goes into a car: the on-board navigation system.
Building a car is hard. I don't think Apple can't do it, but I'm convinced they won't find it "worth it".
No, building a car is actually comparatively easy, as evidenced by the myriad of boutique super cars. It's especially easy if what you want to build is an electric car, because electric cars have an order of magnitude fewer moving parts compared to an ICE car. What is difficult is mass producing a car, as evidenced by Tesla's difficulty in doing just that. But Apple has lots of experience at mass production, and they have the means to acquire whatever talent they lack. That's not to say that they are guaranteed to succeed, but they have a much, much better chance than almost any technology company.
