Apple developing their own car?

[MartinAustin]

CNBC is running with it... and it sounds a lot more firmed up than just a rumour -

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102425949

 

[ecarfan]

Media outlets will run anything if it attracts attention and viewers/readers.

Tim Cook is a very grounded and sensible guy. The idea that he would decide to get into the business of building cars is laughable. It is completely outside Apple's core competency.

 

[30seconds]

Supply chain excellence, software and hardware engineers and battery knowledge. Car market is very very large and since we spend a lot of time in them it makes sense for Apple to extend iOS.

I'm not worried about tesla but if this is true it's probably goodbye to GM.

 

[dsm363]

How would they sell it? If outside the dealer network it could be a powerful ally for Tesla. I doubt Apple is getting into the car business but you never know.

 

[richkae]

I think that if Apple is making a car, they don't want to compete with Tesla, they want to compete with Google.

A software company doesn't get into the auto game to sell cars, it gets in to make autonomous cars. When you make autonomous cars you don't need to sell them, you sell a service.
Apple owns the cars, you pay for the service of that that picks you up and takes you where you want to go.

They don't need auto dealers, they just need customers with smartphones ... smartphones that know where you are, where you want to go, and when you want to go there.

Autonomous cars are not going to compete with the old auto industry - they are going to destroy it.
Having a car at your beck and call, and not having to deal with the depreciation, parking, service and repair will be a game changer.

Not owning the car also solves the whole home charging problem, the car doesn't have to charge at your home. It can charge miles away in some industrial parking lot, packed nose to tail with all the other Apple cars.
It also solves the long range problem. Car only has a 100 mile range and you want to go 200? The first car takes you 100 miles, then you stop and get out of the first car and get into the second car - that is there at the half way point waiting for you.
You finish the trip in the 2nd car.

 

[bluenation]

carplay? yes

better applemaps to compete against goolge? yes

autopilot tech to compete against google's self driving robot? yes

make their own cars!? yea, no.

Apple likes money. And elon is a visionary in a way tim is not.

 

[30seconds]

carplay? yes

better applemaps to compete against goolge? yes

autopilot tech to compete against google's self driving robot? yes

make their own cars!? yea, no.

Apple likes money. And elon is a visionary in a way tim is not.

Tim doesn't need to be the visionary - Elon has already supplied that part

 

[RobStark]

Tim doesn't need to be the visionary - Elon has already supplied that part

Evidently he does. He controls Apple's billions but refuses to spend it.

Autos is a capital intensive business.

It seems he wants to use a contract manufacture to make his iCars.

Magna Steyr.

Magna Steyr has the capacity to make 200k cars per year in Austria.

Half that capacity is spoken for long term by BMW.

The other half is spoken short term by MB and others.


Steyr can produce a tiny amount or medium amount with a long term commitment at a premium.

Which defeats the purpose of saving money not manufacturing.

Unlike Electronics not a lot of contract manufactures.

Fewer still with experience and excellent results.



I suppose he can take a stab at having Foxconn build his cars in Taiwan. Lets see how safe people feel driving a Taiwanese product vs talking on a Chinese phone.

 

[ajax]

I've read several news reports that Musk has been seen on Apple's campus lately. Maybe this is actually a collaborative project, and maybe a creative workaround to the direct dealer ban.

Do you have any links to those news reports? I know he visited Apple over a year ago, but a recent visit would be a key piece to this puzzle.

 

[Mitrovic]

All of these are speculations.
My thoughts are speculations, too:

This recruiting of engineers is more about CarPlay then about an own car.
But if however they decide to make a car, they might use Tesla power train.

 

[jerry33]

All of these are speculations.
My thoughts are speculations, too:

This recruiting of engineers is more about CarPlay then about an own car.
But if however they decide to make a car, they might use Tesla power train.

I can't see Elon submitting to Apple's supplier terms.

 

[ecarfan]

Google has shown how poor software companies can be at making hardware products. They have never had a successful hardware product. Chrome book barely made a dent in the notebook market. The Google' smartphone was a failure and was discontinued. Google Glass is going nowhere. The Google car is years away because of the enormous difficulty of designing highly reliable 100% autonomous driving software and the legal barriers and overcoming customer perceptions.

While Apple has been a hardware AND a software company from the beginning, the regulatory hurdles involved in automobile manufacturing are something they have never dealt with and they have never built anything much larger than a shoebox. Cars are a market that is massively different than anything they have sold before. Sure they can hire experienced automotive people, just like Tesla, but unless Tim Cook has a burning desire to create a car they are unlikely to be successful.

We know that Apple wants CarPlay to be a success so of course Apple needs to being in some people from the automotive industry. But car play is an "infotainment" system, it is nothing like a system that can control every aspect of vehicle operation.

In theory Apple could devote $10 billion of its war chest with the objective of building cars (and obviously they would be EVs) but looking at it realistically I do not believe they will do so.

Elon pulled off the nearly impossible feat of creating the first successful new car company since Chrysler was founded in 1925. I don't see Tim Cook replicating that feat.

 

[jerry33]

Whether Apple is ultimately successful at building and selling a car or not, they have the war chest to stomp all over NADA without breaking into a sweat.

 

[FredTMC]

Whether Apple is ultimately successful at building and selling a car or not, they have the war chest to stomp all over NADA without breaking into a sweat.

Totally. NADA is already on the ropes with Tesla anyway...

My view is this is NOT a rumour. Apple IS planning on building an EV. Apparently a minivan type family vehicle. Probably competes with crossovers like Model X too.

My view is Apple's first iCar will sell out at launch on first years production very quickly.

Wondering how quicky Apple can ramp production... Especially if contract manufacturer is used to start with.

If it's priced similar to ModelX, then iCar could sell 100k units in the first year. Apple iCar will not be a crap car, no way. It'll be good.

Apple has unlimited cash so scaling up really isn't impossible. Battery factory, car plant etc. They have auto experts on staff and they can hire as needed.

 

[spentan]

I don't understand why they wouldn't just buy Tesla as opposed to making their own.

 

[FredTMC]

I don't understand why they wouldn't just buy Tesla as opposed to making their own.

Way too expensive to buy Tesla. Plus, they see a huge potential to have good market share in autos. Multi trillion dollar market.

I'd love to see a minority investment in Tesla by Google. Similar to their Investment in Spacex. This would significantly enable TM to FURTHER accelerate their ramp schedule.

 

[haid]

While Apple has the funds to do pretty much whatever they want.... They can't secure the required batteries without showing their hand. IMHO, we have at least 3 years before serious competition.

 

[RobStark]

If it's priced similar to ModelX, then iCar could sell 100k units in the first year. Apple iCar will not be a crap car, no way. It'll be good.

Apple has unlimited cash so scaling up really isn't impossible. Battery factory, car plant etc. They have auto experts on staff and they can hire as needed.

Hiring experts does not give you a functioning factory nor supplier network.

Remember Tesla hired the team heading the number one factory in North America, the Toyota factory in Quebec. It has not exactly been a seamless transition.

100k long range BEVs would mean buying 30% of the world's non-Tesla lithium ion battery capacity. Meaning they have to outbid others. As opposed to getting rock bottom prices from using Panasonic's mothballed factories.

Going from zero to 100k BEVs is a task of biblical proportions.

 

[FredTMC]

While Apple has the funds to do pretty much whatever they want.... They can't secure the required batteries without showing their hand. IMHO, we have at least 3 years before serious competition.

Yep, I don't disagree. And if their first iCar is a minivan type then in doesn't directly compete with Model 3. It may or may not compete with ModelX depending on price point. My guess is it'll directly compete with MX

- - - Updated - - -

Hiring experts does not give you a functioning factory nor supplier network.

Remember Tesla hired the team heading the number one factory in North America, the Toyota factory in Quebec. It has not exactly been a seamless transition.

100k long range BEVs would mean buying 30% of the world's non-Tesla lithium ion battery capacity. Meaning they have to outbid others. As opposed to getting rock bottom prices from using Panasonic's mothballed factories.

Going from zero to 100k BEVs is a task of biblical proportions.

Yep agreed. I said "could" sell. I agreed that first year production would be less than that.

 

[mknox]

Apple should develop a user interface and license it to manufactures. They'd be the Microsoft of the automotive industry.

Microsoft has been doing this for years with their Windows Embedded software. My old 2009 Cadillac CTS was running Windows Embedded for Automotive. I discovered it when I saw the Windows logo way down deep in one of the configuration screens along with the version number and all.