Apple abandoned a rumoured multi-year effort to make its own electric vehicle with at least some employees from that division set to be reallocated to its AI teams, Bloomberg reported.

Citing unidentified sources the news website claimed Apple had announced internally it was shuttering the electric vehicle project, which the news site stated has nearly 2,000 employees.

The announcement was attributed to COO Jeff Williams and VP Kevin Lynch. Bloomberg stated Lynch oversaw the electric vehicle project, which is known as the Special Projects Group.

Bloomberg reported the decision to shutter the multibillion-dollar project was made over the past few weeks while noting Apple had “imagined” the vehicle being priced at around $100,000.

Apple was rumoured to be interested in building an electric vehicle as far back as 2015 after then SVP of operations Williams stated at a conference the car was the “ultimate mobile device”.