Apple pushing staff to roll out electric vehicle by 2020: report
20 Feb 2015
Apple Inc, which has been working secretly on a 'smart' car, is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020, according to a Bloomberg report citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Automakers typically spend five to seven years developing a car, and the time frame underscores the project's aggressive goals, which could set the stage for a battle for customers with Tesla Motors Inc and General Motors Co, both of which are targeting a 2017 release of an electric vehicle that can go more than 200 miles on a single charge and cost less than $40,000.
''That's the inflection point - the proving ground - that brings on the electric age,'' Steve LeVine, author of The Powerhouse, a book about the automotive battery industry, said on Bloomberg TV on Thursday. ''Now you have Apple coming in and this is critical mass. Was GM really going to be able to match Tesla? Apple can.''
Apple, which posted record profit of $18 billion during the past quarter, has $178 billion in cash with few avenues to spend it. The Cupertino, California-based company's research and development costs were $6.04 billion in the past year, and chief executive officer Tim Cook is facing increased pressure to return cash to shareholders. The CEO has been pushing the iPhone maker to enter new categories to further envelop users' digital lives with Apple's products and services.
Apple's possible foray into cars follows a similar path it had taken to break into other industries. The company wasn't the first to make a digital-music player or smartphone, and only entered those markets once it had a product that redefined those categories.
Apple representatives declined to comment for this story.
Automakers have struggled to bring technical leaps to car development, something that Silicon Valley is also seeking to accomplish. For example, Google Inc. has invested in developing an autonomous vehicle since 2010.
Apple may decide to scrap its car effort or delay it if executives are unhappy with progress, as they've done before with other secret projects, the people said. The car team, which already has about 200 people, began ramping up hiring within the past couple of months as the company sought out experts in technologies for batteries and robotics, said one of the people.
A lawsuit filed this month gives a window into Apple's efforts to create an automotive team for the project. Apple began around June an ''aggressive campaign to poach'' employees from A123 Systems LLC, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based battery maker said in a lawsuit against Apple filed this month.
Apple hired five people from A123 and has tried to hire battery experts from LG Chem Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co, Panasonic Corp, Toshiba Corp and Johnson Controls Inc, according to the lawsuit. (See: Battery maker A123 Systems sues Apple for poaching staff).
