Apple Inc., which has been working secretly on a car, is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020, people with knowledge of the matter said. The timeframe -- automakers typically spend five to seven years developing a car -- underscores the project’s aggressive goals and could set the stage for a battle for customers with Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Co. Both automakers 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.
A lawsuit filed this month gives a window into Apple’s efforts to create a 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 the lawsuit.
“Apple is good at developing technology but car making is, and will continue to be, a bricks-and-mortar proposition,” Matt DeLorenzo, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book, wrote in an e-mail. “Apple will need a partner, perhaps a Chinese manufacturer, with an infrastructure if it’s going to hit the five-year goal.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Bloomberg Business week this month that Apple was seeking to hire away his workers, offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent salary increases.
So if we go by previous Apple products, each year they will bring out a different docking stations as they change the interfaces. Making the vehicle totally incompatible with anything else out there.
A lawsuit filed this month gives a window into Apple’s efforts to create a 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 the lawsuit.
“Apple is good at developing technology but car making is, and will continue to be, a bricks-and-mortar proposition,” Matt DeLorenzo, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book, wrote in an e-mail. “Apple will need a partner, perhaps a Chinese manufacturer, with an infrastructure if it’s going to hit the five-year goal.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Bloomberg Business week this month that Apple was seeking to hire away his workers, offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent salary increases.
So if we go by previous Apple products, each year they will bring out a different docking stations as they change the interfaces. Making the vehicle totally incompatible with anything else out there.
