One of the many speculative concepts out there (this one from CarWow)
German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine is reporting that Apple may be planning to use Austrian-based automotive contract manufacturer Magna to manufacture the Apple Car. The publication also says that Apple has created a ‘secret lab’ in Berlin where it has head-hunted a small cross-disciplinary team of 15-20 upcoming engineers from a number of German car companies.
Magna specialises in making limited-edition models for major car manufacturers, having made the Mini Paceman and Clubman for BMW, as well as the BMW X3. It is expected to make hundreds of thousands of vehicles for BMW over the next 6-7 years …
The report is light on detail, but it would be no surprise that Apple would consider Germany or Austria for car production, the region being home to many premium automotive brands, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche. One of the hires we exclusively profiled back in February 2015 was former Mercedes R&D head Johann Jungwirth.
It was also reported then that Apple execs visited Austria to meet with Magna to discuss the car project – though we noted then that Samsung had acquired the company’s battery-pack business. Magna was one of the companies present at a global car body conference attended by Sixty Eight Research, a firm widely believe to be a front for the Apple Car division.
Most of Apple’s car-related activity appears to be taking place in the company’s home state of California, where it has reportedly been quietly purchasing and leasing a variety of buildings.
Via Business Insider, concept images from CarWow
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I’m not saying it’s untrue, but making up rumors like that would be an easy way to push up their stock value.
Anything goes right now…
The “Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung” is not a newspaper that relies much on rumors.
This one is actually inline with other early rumblings (may share a chassis with X3, etc). Not saying it’s true, but I don’t think this a pump and dump.
It isn’t likely…at all…that Apple manufactures their car. They need to go to the hot bed of premium car manufacturing…this falls inline, in my opinion, to the route that actually makes sense for Apple.
At least this mock up looks better than the one from Motor Trend last week.
Firs thing I thought before I even opened the story.
If Apple car looked like this people would yawn, just another car, zero innovation.
And then they would buy a hundred million of them and then complain about battery life.
Which is why I still harbour some doubt about the whole AppleCar thing. Cres are a mature product. Yes there are innovations but they are evolutionary, not revolutionary. I just don’t see how Apple could come into this market and revolutionize it, that being Apple’s prefered business model. I don’t see how Apple can produce just another all electric car with four wheels, doors, and steering wheel, just like Tesla, and Chevy, and in a few years three or four others. It looks like they are working on something in this space, andit will be fascinating to see what, if anything, they end up with.
I can’t remember where I saw this Tesla like renders last week. There is a pretty good black and gold one of this body style.
I think with the options and design style of the new Mini Clubman, it would be a good car to pair a good electric engine platform to.
Magna Steyr has produced vehicles for a lot of car companies. Definitely high-end, but total capacity is reported at 200,000 per year. Apple could only get a slice of that. How much sense does it make to pursue such a limited market with so much competition? What will Apple bring to the world?
In the past, Apple showed how the MP3 player should work. They defined the UI for PCs with the Mac. They redefined the mobile phone for the world. Are they going to show Maserati how it’s done in the car world? The contract manufacturing world for cars is much smaller than the contract manufacturing world for automobiles. The Apple car may be a boutique product that one sees only occasionally in the wild. Maybe parked in front of Burberrys?
That’s “MINI” :)
I’m old enough to remember the original, so not a fan of BMW’s capitalization :-)
While it’s true that Magna does manufacture cars all over Europe (including Austria), they are actually a Canadian company. That would give Apple a much closer to home partner — same language, almost identical consumer market, similar culture, same time zones, etc — much better for overall communication, much easier to keep production running smoothly (even if final assembly is done in Austria).
I seriously doubt the Car will be anything like the pic above. Their line of thinking points more towards small, all-electric and very smart city-go-abouts along the lines of the Hiriko or Toyota’s iRoad. Cars like that are what would make a difference in our world, not the ultra-sporty oh-so-fancy sports cars. This is a very Samsung approach. Fancy, better specs on paper, will sell like stupid, but missing the point
Considering how buggy their current IOS is right now, I would never trust Apple with my life. Hell, I would never buy another Apple product.
And yet…you are here commenting.
There goes the notion that Apple would bring manufacturing jobs to the US.