Commercial  -  April 19, 2016

Apple reportedly working on electric car at secret German lab

Apple is reportedly working on its long-rumored electric vehicle at a research and development lab in Germany, according to April 19 media reports. 

The Telegraph reported that the tech company hired up to 20 automotive industry specialists working under the codename "Project Titan," citing German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The paper reportedly described the new hires as youthful, and from software, hardware, sales and engineering backgrounds. 

According to the report, the Apple car is expected to go on sale in the 2019 to 2020 timeframe, and is more similar to Tesla's electric vehicles than the self-driving variety being developed by Google.  Rumors have also suggested that the Apple car will be made in Austria by Magna Steyr. 

Apple has made a series of high-profile hires from the automotive industry in the past few years, The Telegraph noted, including Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen engineer with expertise in automated driving, and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research.

The newspaper continued:

Rumours have been circulating over Apple's plans to build a car for several years, with late chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs said to have been enthusiastic about making a vehicle as far back as 2008, going as far as to think about dashboard and seat appearance.

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