It looks like Apple is working on an electric, possibly autonomous automobile. Numerous publications have reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook started the project about a year ago, which followed a M&A meeting with Tesla’s Elon Musk in the Spring of 2013.
We must remember that Apple has many R&D projects and “says no a thousand times for every yes” and of course even if the car project does happen, any type of product is many years off (barring any acquisition). Then there is the current mess that is CarPlay…
But the idea does make some sense on a macro level. Tim Cook’s Apple is a Green company and takes on the world’s problems including Global Warming. Electric cars, when coupled with clean energy, cut Co2 emissions.
“We know at Apple that climate change is real… our view is the time for talk is past and the time for action is now” – Tim Cook on the recent opening of Apple’s monster solar project
Execs including Eddy Cue (Ferrari’s Board), Phil Schiller (who testified in the Samsung trial that Apple considered making a car before the iPhone) and Jony “Aston/Bentley” Ive (pictured above, shotgun) are known for their interest in cars.
Perhaps the most compelling argument is that Apple, which sits on $200B cash mountain and looks for areas ripe for disruption, can make a very short list of industries bigger than the consumer electronics industry that it now dominates.
If you consider household capital expenditures, cars are second only to housing. The auto industry is a trillion dollar a year industry. That’s a big pie, even if Apple hopes to just take a small piece. Tesla thinks it can hit Apple’s current valuation in a decade, just by selling electric cars and batteries.
For the record, I’d heard from people outside of Apple that they were hiring people that could only be working on electric cars. Without solid proof and with the knowledge that they’d hired auto folks like Doug Field to actually work on Macintosh hardware development in the past, we had nothing to go on.
The Industry
As an electric car enthusiast who drives two different electric cars and writes about the clean energy/electric car industry, I couldn’t be happier about the prospect of Apple joining the electric car industry. I am a big Tesla fan but I think an Apple car would be great for the whole electric vehicle ecosystem. Even the rumor of Apple’s electric vehicle entry has cast a bright light on the technology.
Every major carmaker has some sort of electric car initiative and the prospect of Apple taking over their industry will only spur investment in the field. Nissan’s Leaf which debuted with ads on iAd, now is the only mainstream fully electric car, but many more are just around the corner.
Apple has the resources to expand vehicle charging infrastructure, battery technology and even influence government regulations. Electric and autonomous transportation is clearly the future and Apple’s entry would be good for everyone outside of the legacy car and oil industry.
What do you think?
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“Apple, which sits on $200B cash mountain”
No, they don’t.
Not yet, anyway.
Rounded up
“Nissan’s Leaf which debuted with ads on iAd, now is the only mainstream fully electric car…”
Are the Chevy Volt and Bolt not electric mainstream cars?
The volt is a hybrid electric. It still has a gas tank. I don’t know what the Bolt is.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/12/chevy-bolt-michigan/
“Chevy’s official announcement doesn’t mention a start date for manufacturing, nor when we should expect to see the Bolt in showrooms, though rumors have suggested a debut in 2016-2017.”
Don’t forget the fully electric Ford Focus. The Bolt is a concept that is now in production; GM’s first fully electric vehicle with a 200 mile range.
Right. I mean mainstream. There is also the Chevy Spark, BMW i3 and a few others but I wouldn’t call them mainstream
Are you saying the Ford Focus isn’t mainstream?
Are you saying the Ford Focus isn’t mainstream? The Leaf falls short of the Focus in almost every category.
He’s saying, if it isn’t Apple related, it’s not mainstream! It’s an Apple world, everything else is subprime!
The big difference though is that all the current car manufacturers are doing is putting an electric motor in whatever their smallest car is and calling it done. Tesla is doing the same on some level too.
No one is yet “designing an electric car” IMO at any of the mainstream auto makers.
All of the really cool electric cars of the last few decades have been designed by nobodies out of left field, not large auto manufacturers, and all have failed to capture the public’s imagination so far. Presumably, what Apple is doing will be quite different from all of the attempts by companies like GM, Ford, Chevy, etc.
yea, Apple will show the auto industry about making cars. GMAFB! The truth is that electric cars do not SATISFY THE NEED you freaking idiot!!
Can you expand in your comment: ‘All of the really cool electric cars of the last few decades.’
Thanks in advance.
To the comment:
“yea, Apple will show the auto industry about making cars. GMAFB! The truth is that electric cars do not SATISFY THE NEED you freaking idiot!!”
As for the part or the quote. ‘Apple will show the auto industry about making cars…’
He just was making a wishful extrapolation:
– In 1976, Apple revolutionized the computer industry with the personal computer, the Apple II.
– In 1984, Apple revolutionized the personal computer industry with the Graphical User Interface, the Macintosh.
– In 2001, Apple revolutionized the music industry with the iPod and iTunes store.
– In 2007, Apple revolutionized the cellphone industry with the iPhone.
– In 2008, Apple revolutionized the way people uses their smartphones with the App Store.
– In 2010, Apple revolutionized the tablet industry (well, there was no ‘tablet industry,’ just ten years of Microsoft’s failures) with the iPad.
– In 2015, maybe Apple will revolutionized the smart watch industry (well, there is no ‘smart watch industry,’ just a bunch of ‘first attempts’) with the Apple Watch…
So, please, forgive Gazoo Bee if he ‘extrapolates’ this history of ‘changing the way it was’ in so many industries.
On the other hand, all of the revolutionized industries were in the 30-50 years old industries. Car manufacturing is in the more than 100 years old industries… a hard nut to crack!
But, the electric car industry (except for very old examples) is a fairly new industry… but run by old suspects!
As for the part or the quote. ‘The truth is that electric cars do not SATISFY THE NEED…’
Maybe this is the reason why the car makers are not finding the correct answer. The ‘job to be done’ by the combustion engine’s car is quite different from the one to be done by the electric engine’s car. (See, by example, the poor success of the ‘electric F1’: they not even do noise!)
I will forever prefer my Porshe 911 over any electric car… but electric cars have a place in the world.
As for the part or the quote. ‘GMAFB! … you freaking idiot!!’
You can try to learn some good manners!
(Sorry, no help neither from Apple nor Quora. You must decide yourself to do this.)
It will be another change in Apple’s behavior… or not!
Almost all its life, Apple showed a new product days before delivering.
Honorably, the iPhone was announced six months earlier to not loose the pleasure of announcing it by Steve.
Apple TV also wow announced some time earlier the delivering, I do not remember why.
All other products were announced less or around a month of delivering.
But wait… the Apple Watch… also was announced like six months before (soon we’ll know). But it also was shown in fashion shows and boutiques shops. Big change! But proper of fashion business.
Now, what will Apple do if it design a car.
See the car business behavior: Suppose today, in a car show, they show the ‘concept model’ XY2.
With very much luck, a car prototype maybe 25-35% similar to the concept car is shown in next year car show.
One or two year later, the car manufacturer announces the availability of the car.
(Now that I write down it, I see that is was Microsoft’s way during all its life… HoloLens? Surface Hub?)
Do you see Apple doing that?
The Apple model would be three to five years of development and announcement at WWDC, no, at he new Campus 2 amphitheater to show the car in Tuesday and deliver in Saturday.
Following the presentation of the Watch, Apple invites people of the automotive press industry to the event.
People set long lines to buy the product.
But still there is bigger problem… How they are going to remodelate the Apple Stores to include from Apple Watch Edition to iPod shuffles to iCars?
Could I pay with Apple Pay.
In 2012, Alexis C. Madrigal wrote “At $500 Billion, Apple Is Worth as Much as Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, Honda, Ford, Nissan, and GM Combined,” so it can buy one of those companies (I prefer TOYOTA or Daimler).
The other part, the one related to autonomous driving cars let me more confused. Apple has to advance a lot in Apple Maps before it can happen.
A company cannot buying another company using market cap as their market price is owned by its shareholders.
why would they do a car, when a battery on the iPhone doesn’t evan last a day…
Imagine a car which can last a whole day on a battery… My EV lasts two hours maximum if I drive fast.
The 6 lasts longer than other iPhones. Upgrade. And if you want amazing battery life get a 6+
”CarPlay does not work the way we intended. Let´s build our own hardware!”
Nice to see them in a Italian FIAT 500…
Apple could buy the Wainxiang group that is re-releasing the Fisker Karma this year. They could also buy the BYD Company(Warren Buffett’s baby) that has existing car manufacturing ability, solar panel and battery storage production capability. They build electric buses, solar streetlights, the complete Green Company. (Buffet just bought Duracell, wonder if there is a connection). It would be the end of Tesla and Solar City. Apple has the deep pockets to really become the whole package Green Company and they can do it for a lot less than Tesla would cost. Solar panels on your house, drive your electric car home and plug it in to the battery back up system. Off the grid completely. Might be time to sell that Tesla stock. They’ll be bankrupt before they see a profit. Time to park the Tesla next to the DeLorean.
I don’t know if Apple is going to make a electric car. I think they could simply be working on something related to electric cars. Maybe they are going to make the world’s best batteries. Maybe they are going to create long range high voltage charging for electric vehicles. Maybe they will launch an autonomous driving solution. These individual pieces may be sold to other manufacturers, and not used by Apple themselves.
Yeah with TC calling climate change real won’t be a surprise if they are investing in the future.
If Apple comes out with a futuristic personal transporter read autinomous battery powered car, which I think could be a cross between Segway and a car, by 2018 I think they will call it the iPod. This feels like it woul be anki in real world. The idea and technology is already there, it’s a matter of scaling it. Cameras sensors AI batteries….it’s all there. Add Touch ID for security and mypod will not be stolen or if it is it can be found with find mypod or mIpod. The difference is what’s at stake…lives. Would u trust a machine…whether I do or do not and apple does it or does not the industry is surely on the verge of transformation and major disruption. In stead of Apple stores and ms stores opposite to one another at the mall be prepared for Apple and tesla stores competing for footfalls.
too far fro mthe tree?
I think if Apple starts making electric cars that are like or even better than Tesla, they could surely sell millions of such cars worldwide and that could revolutionise the world once again and save the day for climate change!