AAPL Stock News
An Apple electric car has been rumored for about a year now, with the new project being named Project Titan. Now, this rumored project appears to be more concrete, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the company is internally aiming to start shipping the electric vehicles by 2019.
The company has spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of such a project, and Apple is now convinced that it can become a major player in the automotive market. Rumors have linked the company to investigating the potential of fully autonomous vehicles, with driverless cars being a pet project of multiple companies. This remains part of Apple’s long-term plans, but the first vehicle will not have this capability.
The 2019 target date is quite ambitious, as building a car is a rather complex model. It remains to be seen whether Apple will acquire an automotive partner to contract building the physical models, which has been the company’s business model for other products like the iPhone. Apple has made some high-profile hires in the automotive industry in the last year, including Fiat Chrysler’s Doug Betts, and it has now authorized the leaders of project Titan to triple its team of 600 employees to meet the new goals for the electric vehicle.
