Adding more fuel to the fire, reports are circulating today that Apple is aiming for a 2020 delivery of its rumored electric car. The six-year timetable for commencement of work to delivery is about par for experienced manufacturers, but industry analysts say that Apple may be jumping the gun on release a bit, with them expecting that a newcomer to the industry generally takes up to 10 years for the first models to roll off the production line. It is worth noting that all reports on the matter -- and subsequent quotes from others -- are speculative in nature, as the company has not confirmed anything.
Bloomberg quoted unnamed sources who pointed to Apple's timetable for the release, with little else to back up the time estimate. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was rumored to want to build an Apple Car at some point, but this was only made public after his death, and may be apocryphal.
Business Insider quotes a tipster's email, claiming that Apple has hired engineers away from Tesla for vehicle development. The recent Apple hiring of designer Marc Newson, confirmed by Newson's LinkedIn profile, lends credibility to the idea that Apple may be working on a vehicle concept. Newson designed the 021C Ford concept car, a design called "Apple-ish" by analysts.
The
Wall Street Journal claimsthat Apple executives are in the midst of discussions with "contract manufacturers for high-end cars."
MacObserver, without giving any specific quotes, cites its own sources confirming the effort.
It should be mentioned that Apple, and other Silicon Valley companies, can and often have started development on a product and ultimately not shipped, for whatever the reason. A quick perusal of recent history suggests that
more Apple executives now work for Tesla than the other way around, with Apple trying to stem the tide.
While Apple has a solid distribution chain, it would either have to partner with existing dealerships to sell any vehicle it produced, or build out its own series of dealerships -- which we see no evidence of at this early stage. It is also possible that Apple has only the intention of designing a concept car and then licensing the design to established companies. At this point, Apple's electric vehicle would have to fight the consumer inertia of the lowest prices for gasoline in over a decade -- a problem that Tesla is having right now, having lost over $300 million in the last year, with little or no profit expected in the next year.
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