Porsche says it will bring CarPlay Ultra to future models but still refuses to pin down a launch date.
Chief designer Michael Mauer delivered the pledge to the Financial Times, which in the same report revealed a growing list of rivals, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Volvo, Polestar, and Renault, now shunning Apple’s expanded dashboard. Porsche signed up when Apple previewed the “next-generation CarPlay” at WWDC 2022 and even showed branded mock-ups a year later. Then came radio silence, until this week’s reaffirmation.
CarPlay Ultra goes far beyond the familiar phone-mirroring version. It runs the instrument cluster, climate controls, and tyre-pressure readouts, while Apple’s own Radio and Climate apps replace much of the carmaker’s native UI. Drivers can tweak colours and arrange widgets to suit the cabin’s mood.
Today, the software lives only inside a handful of Aston Martin models in North America. Apple says Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are next, but those rollouts stretch into 2026. Standard CarPlay already appears in 98 percent of new U.S. cars and sees more than 600 million daily uses, according to the FT, evidence of the pull Apple holds over buyers.
Manufacturers Aren’t Ready To Give Up Their Dashboards Yet
Yet many automakers see more risk than upside. They fear ceding screen real estate, customer relationships, and lucrative driver data to Cupertino at a time when software subscriptions promise fresh revenue. Several also worry that Apple’s design language could erode hard-won brand identity.
Porsche takes a different tack. Its customers lean heavily toward the iPhone ecosystem, and the brand has long marketed itself as tech-forward. Aligning with CarPlay Ultra lets Stuttgart promise a cabin that feels as slick as an iOS home screen while still dressing Apple’s templates in Porsche fonts and colours.
Technical hurdles remain steep. Ultra demands dozens of vehicle-control APIs, rigorous safety certification and painstaking UI work for each trim level—tasks that can drag on development calendars already packed with EV transitions and autonomous-drive upgrades. Those complexities likely explain Porsche’s reluctance to quote a delivery year.
Still, the company’s renewed commitment gives Apple a critical ally just as momentum appears to wobble elsewhere. If Porsche can ship the first sports car with a fully Apple-powered cockpit, it may prove that heritage brands can embrace Silicon Valley without losing their soul—and put fresh pressure on the holdouts circling their own walled gardens.
Really interesting to see Porsche committing to CarPlay Ultra while other automakers back away. It shows they understand their customer base, many of whom are deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem. The challenge will be integrating it seamlessly without compromising Porsche’s brand identity. If they can blend the convenience of CarPlay Ultra with the performance-focused experience Porsche is known for, it could set a new standard for how legacy brands embrace tech without losing their soul. Curious to see how this plays out.