CALIFORNIA: Apple has revolutionised music and phones. Now the company has appointed several hundred employees working secretly towards creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle. The Titan project initially was working on the design of a vehicle that resembles a mini-van.
The company has several hundred employees working secretly towards creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle, according to people familiar with the matter. The “Titan” project initially was working on the design of a vehicle that resembles a mini-van, one of the people said. Apple declined to comment.
Apple ultimately could decide not to proceed with a car. In addition, many technologies used in an electric car, such as advanced batteries and in-car electronics, could be useful to other Apple products.
Apple often investigates technologies and potential products, going as far as building multiple prototypes for some things that it won’t ever sell. Any car would take several years to complete and obtain safety certifications.
But the size of the project team and the senior people involved indicated that the company was serious, the sources said. Apple executives have flown to Austria to meet with contract manufacturers for high-end cars including the Magna Steyr unit of Canadian auto supplier Magna International. Magna declined to comment.
Apple’s industrial design team is staffed with several people who have experience at European carmakers. Last year, Apple hired Marc Newson, a famous industrial designer and close friend of the company’s design guru, Jony Ive. In the past, Mr Newson created a concept car for Ford.
Apple hoped to put its stamp on the electric vehicle market in the same way it did the smartphone with its iPhone, said a person familiar with its work.
Even though Apple defied expectations of slowing growth with a 30 per cent rise in revenue in the quarter ended in December, the company is under constant scrutiny of where its next breakthrough product will come from.
Earlier this week, chief executive Tim Cook said at an investor conference that he did not believe companies naturally started to slow as their revenue grew. This was “dogma” and Apple didn’t believe in putting limits on what it was capable of.
A side benefit of the project, according to one of the sources, is that it has persuaded many Apple employees who were thinking of leaving the company to stay and work on an exciting new endeavour without the pressure of churning out new products every year.
Other Silicon Valley giants are looking at cars. Google has been working on a self-driving car for years. A self-driving car was not part of Apple’s plan, one of the people familiar with the project said.
Mr Cook approved the car project almost a year ago and assigned veteran product design vice-president Steve Zadesky to lead the group, the sources said
Mr Zadesky was given permission to create a 1000-member team.
