Apple Car bested Tesla in a recent survey of car buyers even if the iPhone maker has yet to release an electric vehicle, which could straight up rival the offerings of the Elon Musk-led automaker.

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A reporter walks by an Apple logo during a media event in San Francisco, California on September 9, 2015.

The rumored car project of Apple outpaced other giant carmakers, such as prominent brand names like BMW.

Apple Car is More Preferred Than Tesla

The renowned tech giant that brought us top-notch smartphones, impressive smartwatches, and powerful MacBooks, has yet to enter the auto market, but buyers are choosing it over actual automakers.

The iPhone maker never formally confirmed nor denied that it is actually working on a car project, as per a news story by Tesla North.

However, rumors and various reports of leadership shake-ups within the secretive endeavor have long been suggesting that Apple Car is a real thing. In fact, no less than the Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Tim Cook, has once hinted at an autonomous vehicle. But the tech exec never really bared any official plans for it.

All that said, the Cupertino-based tech giant has yet to unveil its first-ever car offering.

Yet, a recent survey by Strategic Vision showed that Apple has outperformed car makers like Lexus and Tesla in terms of buyer interest.

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BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 23: (CHINA OUT) Elon Musk, Chairman, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors, addresses a press conference to declare that the Tesla Motors releases v7.0 System in China on a limited basis for its Model S, which will enable self-driving features such as Autosteer for a select group of beta testers on October 23, 2015 in Beijing, China.

Roughly 200,000 new car owners participated in the survey, according to a recent report by Business Insider. And about 26 percent of these participants admitted that they would go for an Apple Car if ever there was such an option, outperforming Tesla.

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Apple Car Still Lags Behind Toyota, Honda

The Cupertino giant, which has yet to dive into the car market, lags behind staple and well-known brands like Honda and Toyota.

But on the other hand, Business Insider reports that other prominent names in the car-making business, like giant all-electric car maker, Tesla, as well as long-time brands including Lexus and BMW failed to outperform Apple.

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The logo of US tech giant Apple can be seen on an Apple store in Munich, southern Germany.

It also turns out that half of the current Tesla owners in the survey are interested in getting their hands on the car offering of Apple once it sees the light of day.

Interestingly though, Apple performs better than the Japanese automaker, Toyota, when it comes to "quality impression."

To be more precise, the phone maker garnered a 24% score in the said category, whereas Tesla and Toyota only reached roughly 11% and 15%, respectively.

The president of Strategic Vision, Alexander Edwards, highlights that the " brand awareness and reputation provide a formidable platform" for Apple.

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Written by Teejay Boris