Rumours of an electric car being built by Apple have been flying for years, and the evidence keeps mounting up.
Apple top brass have made several visits to BMW facilities over the last year, a new report reveals.
According to Reuters, “two sources familiar” with the matter revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook went to BMW’s headquarters last year.
The report also suggests that “senior Apple executives” toured BMW’s Leipzig factory.
The visit was allegedly plotted so that Apple could “learn how it manufactures the i3 electric car”.
The i3 is BMW’s electric “zero emissions” five-door urban hatchback, which first entered production back in 2013.
“The dialogue ended without conclusion because Apple appears to want to explore developing a passenger car on its own,” the report continues.
It also suggests that
Apple executives reportedly probed BMW board members on tooling, production, and parts licensing.
“Apple executives were impressed with the fact that we abandoned traditional approaches to car making and started afresh,” a senior BMW source was reported as saying. “It chimed with the way they do things too.”
However, it seems a partnership between BMW and Apple may be off the cards, as the article states:
“The carmaker says there are currently no talks with Apple about jointly developing a passenger car and Apple declined to comment.”
Related: Apple Car: The biggest challenges Apple faces
Back in February, the WSJ reported that Apple had “hundreds” of employees working on the design of an “Apple-branded electric vehicle”.
At the time, the car in question was tipped to be a “minivan like vehicle”.
Unfortunately, Apple has made no official comment on the matter of a custom-built car.
In March, an AppleInsider report suggested Apple was building an Apple Car – codename Project Titan – at a secret Sunnyvale campus via a shell company.
Do you think Apple is plotting an entry to the car market? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.