September 22, 2015

By William Pentland

The rumors that Apple is building an electric car are apparently more than just rumors.

Credit: Joe Ravi/Wikimedia Commons

The Cupertino-based computer company turned iPhone pioneer plans to start selling electric vehicles to members of the general public by 2019, according to a story in Monday's Wall Street Journal.

Apple is reportedly "accelerating" an initiative known internally as Project Titan to build an electric car for the mass market.

To this end, Apple is tripling the size of its electric vehicle workforce by hiring about 400 new employees to join the 200 already working on Project Titan. Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, decided to go ahead with Project Titan after a detailed evaluation of the automobile industry and the potential market opportunity, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Contrary to the scuttlebutt circulating in the blogosphere, the electric vehicle Apple will be shipping in 2019 will not be fully autonomous.

It is not clear what competitive advantage Apple might have in the automobile market. Despite the success of recent Apple product launches like the Apple Watch, it seems unlikely that even Apple's brand power will be enough to win in a crowded market.

In other electric vehicle news, the U.S. Department of Energy said it would provide nearly $55 million in funding to support 24 research projects developing cutting-edge vehicle technologies for increasing fuel efficiency and reducing petroleum consumption. The projects are also intended to contribute to achieving the Energy Department's Electric Vehicle Everywhere Grand Challenge, which wants to make plug-in electric vehicles cost competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles by 2022.

For more:
- see this background article

© 2015 FierceMarkets, a division of Questex, LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/confirmed-apple-rolling-out-electric-car/2015-09-22