Apple BMW discussed iCar collaboration last year: Report

Apple executives visited BMW last year to find out more about how BMW made the i3 electric car before it decided on the underpinnings for its purported iCar, reports citing rumors posted by Germany's Manager-Magazin said.

''Apple executives were impressed with the fact that we abandoned traditional approaches to car making and started afresh. It chimed with the way they do things too,'' according to the report which cited an unnamed source at BMW.

The report said, Tim Cook visited BMW's headquarters in 2014 and had extensive interaction with the carmaker's board members about production of its i3 electric vehicles, which BMW manufactures using lightweight carbon fiber. The report said, BMW executives were willing to provide the parts for the Apple Car.

However, the talks did not proceed further as, according to sources, Apple decided to try to build a car on its own and BMW had concerns about revealing its manufacturing secrets and becoming only a mere supplier of car parts for the tech company.

Meanwhile, in a bid to forestall a potential problem of grid overload from millions of electric cars charging simultaneously, California utility company PG&E is partnering with BMW to  trial a solution. The company would compensate i3 drivers for non-peak charging. PG&E would contact BMW when it wanted to curb consumption and the car company would then select drivers on the basis of their "desired departure time" submitted in the BMW iRemote app.