Apple hires longtime auto executive, stokes electric car rumors

Please don't call it the 'iCar'!

Do people seriously still think this is all about CarPlay on steroids? Think about it...we start getting rumors this year that a car project is underway. The WSJ says Tim Cook approved a team of 1000 to work on it. The Financial Times says Apple's design team has been meeting with auto executives trying to poach them. 9to5Mac reports on some of the known project members which include mechanical engineers inside Apple that have prior automotive experience. At the re/code conference Jeff Williams says the car is the ultimate mobile device. Then at the end of May Jony Ive hands off day to day design duties to two lieutenants and his updated bio on apple.com says his responsibilities include "new ideas and initiatives". There's no doubt in my mind Apple is working on a vehicle. Exactly what kind of vehicle is the million dollar question.

[quote name="Brakken" url="/t/187283/apple-hires-longtime-auto-executive-for-rumored-electric-car-initiative#post_2750213"]Please don't call it the 'iCar'! [/quote] If they want to sell to me it will need to be called iPickup. Oh it needs to be reasonably priced too, survive the winters in the fridge north and have some sort of range extending capability.

[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/187283/apple-hires-longtime-auto-executive-stokes-electric-car-rumors#post_2750215"]Do people seriously still think this is all about CarPlay on steroids? Think about it...we start getting rumors this year that a car project is underway. The WSJ says Tim Cook approved a team of 1000 to work on it. The Financial Times says Apple's design team has been meeting with auto executives trying to poach them. 9to5Mac reports on some of the known project members which include mechanical engineers inside Apple that have prior automotive experience. At the re/code conference Jeff Williams says the car is the ultimate mobile device. Then at the end of May Jony Ive hands off day to day design duties to two lieutenants and his updated bio on apple.com says his responsibilities include "new ideas and initiatives". [/quote] While all of the above is true the company I work for has hired many people from the now defunct Kodak. That doesn't mean we will be making film.???? [quote] There's no doubt in my mind Apple is working on a vehicle. Exactly what kind of vehicle is the million dollar question.[/quote] I don't dismiss the possibility that Apple is working on a car project, or maybe better said a transportation project. To get any real traction in the marketplace it needs to be something very unique and hopefully advanced enough to impress people. That will be hard to do at the price points a car needs to be marketed at. Tesla has demonstrated that going after the luxury market does not make a car company, the volumes are too low for a startup business. In fact there have been numerous examples of the issues startups have in the transportation space. Sadly I think the problem with transportation startups is that people no longer have much of a desire to tinker with their automobiles and have very high expectations of driving without thinking about the operation of the car. Even the performance car / sports car industry has suffered from this mentality of late. So Apple needs to manage a initial first delivery of a high performance vehicle that creates interest in the buying public. By high performance here I mean the over all function of the car from the motive force to the radio. And yes iCar needs an AM/FM radio. What is even more interesting here is how would Apple manage such a project in secret. Just building a plant will not go unnoticed even in China and the plant needs to be built at least a couple of years before first delivery. Further the plant really needs to be established in the USA. Beyond all of that you need to line up several dozen component and subassembly suppliers. In all likelihood we would start hearing about iCar a couple of years before the first unit comes off the production line. By hearing I mean solid information that goes beyond the current rumors.