Last week a report surfaced claiming that Apple will be using BMW’s electric i3 as a starting point for its future Apple car, but at the same time, rumors also suggested that the talks between Apple has BMW has come to a deadlock. Reuter has dug further into the story and has obtained its own information.
Reuter talked to several unnamed sources familiar with the matter and learned several new details on the matter. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and other executives reportedly visited BMW in Leipzig, Germany, to visit the area where electric BMW i3 is put together. The report suggests that Apple left the talk without concluding a deal because Apple wanted “to explore developing a passenger car on its own.”
During the visit, Apple executives asked BMW board members detailed questions about tooling and production and BMW executives signaled readiness to license parts, one of the sources said. News of the Leipzig visit first emerged in Germany’s Manager-Magazin last week.
Apple executives were impressed with the fact that we abandoned traditional approaches to car making and started afresh. It chimed with the way they do things too,” a senior BMW source said.
While Apple and BMW do not seem to have any plans to work together to bring Apple car to life, the sources, however, suggested that “exploratory talks” between the two companies may restart at some point down the road.
Rumors and reports of Apple working on its own electric car started to make rounds back in February this year, including some reports from credible publications. Apple also hired numerous auto engineers and experts in hopes to have an electric vehicle in mass productions by 2020. Apple is said to refer its electric car project as “Titan.”
The company known for launching best smartphones and tablets into the market, moving into a totally different industry, is going to be a big move for it. As a start, the fruit company would bee looking for a partnership with the liked of BMW to get into the Cars industry.
[via Reuters]