Mikey Campbell
Adding to a firestorm of rumors surrounding Apple's supposed electric car project, a report on Thursday claims the Cupertino tech giant is gunning for a manufacturing start date of 2020.
Citing sources familiar with Apple's plans, Bloomberg reports executives are pushing internal development teams to start first production runs of an electric vehicle in five years, an aggressive goal even for established car manufacturers.
The person confirmed that Apple is hiring a specialized team for the project, supposedly codenamed "Titan," including experts in batteries and robotics, but says the number is closer to 200 people, not the "several hundred" as previously rumored.
A report last week pointed to a number of recent automative sector hires, including Mercedes R&D head Johann Jungwirth, while other recruiting efforts are focusing on engineers from electric car maker Tesla. Speculation as to what Apple has planned ranges from in-car infotainment software to a full-blown branded vehicle.
The source qualifies their claims, however, noting the secret "Apple Car" initiative could go the way of previous skunkworks programs and disappear before seeing the light of day. For example, Apple could decide to scrap the project if higher-ups don't find results meet the company's strict standards of excellence.
According to today's report, Apple could enter the automotive industry as a category disruptor, a tactic that brought unparalleled success with iPhone and iPad.
Stoking the flames is a recent lawsuit that alleges Apple poached key employees from battery maker A123 Systems, a firm known for engineering high-performance lithium-ion energy storage components for electric vehicles.
Rumors of Apple's top-secret Apple Car lab heated up earlier this month when mysterious vans stacked with what appears to be high-tech surveying equipment were spotted in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some suspect the Dodge Caravans are testbeds for an autonomous self-driving car program, though it is more likely that the instrument-laden cars are part of an advanced mapping initiative similar to Google's Street View.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Amber Neely
295 Comments
This all seems like speculation feeding off other speculation.
I hope it's more like a sports edition BMW with Tesla like batteries and Apple software. If it's anything like Ford, GM and Fiat-Chrsyler, it will surely fail.
Oh great! Apple might make a car but then again Apple might not make a car. Six more years of useless rumors to go along with the past 4 years of the Apple TV rumors we still keep hearing about.
I wish them well.
Until they can overcome the problems inherent to electric cars, they won't achieve the extensive market they have with their mobile devices.
Some problems with electric cars:
1. Total mileage is very limited compared to fossil fuels. You need to be able to do 400 or 500 miles on a charge.
2. Charging takes ages. When you can charge in three minutes, it'll be comparable to gas.
3. The battery is extremely heavy and bulky. This means that boots are tiny.
4. The battery has to be replaced frequently at great expense and time. No such problem with gas.
5. Where do you charge your car? In the UK, at least, this is very limited. Forget charging at home. A large proportion of people live in apartments and leave their car on the street. To my mind, this is the biggest obstacle to electric cars—there is no infrastructure, nor any easy way to solve that problem. This is why charging times need to come down to five minutes or fewer.
6. Electric cars are much more expensive than normal ones. Total overall lifetime cost, as well as initial cost, is still much higher than for equivalent gas cars. There is virtually no market for them, save for small city cars, though they have become less visible in London in the past few years.
One would expect Apple to build the most attractive electric car that you could wish for. If anyone can make them popular, they surely can. However, transforming the infrastructure is a monumental undertaking that is out of their hands. The only way to solve the charge problem, to my mind, is to hugely reduce the charge time. It sounds, from the recent rumours, that Apple are concentrating on battery tech.
I'd love an electric Apple Car; I guess Cook and Ive like a challenge!
What if they can make an electric car that only need to charge once a week? That will be so brilliant.