[NewsPoster]

According to people familiar with Apple's plans and an examination of LinkedIn profiles, Apple has been meeting with companies with expertise in designing and building charging stations, and has also been busy hiring engineers with expertise in the field. A major barrier to consumer adoption of electric vehicles is the charging process, which can be lengthy and inconvenient due to a lack of charging station infrastructure – it would be a key area that in developing an electric car, that Apple would be looking to make more user friendly.


The companies that Apple has been meeting with are said to be wary of Apple's interest in their technology, as Apple could easily opt to introduce its own charging station solution using proprietary Apple technology potentially putting it in competition with them. At the same time, making an electric vehicle that could only work with Apple charging station technology be potentially off-putting to customers, which makes it plausible that Apple would be looking for charging solution that could help it reach a critical mass helping to boost electric vehicle adoption rates. At this stage in the discussions, it is unclear whether Apple is looking to create charging station solution that would be compatible with existing systems already deployed in the marketplace.

The news of Apple's purported talks with companies specializing in electric vehicle charging stations aligns with several recent Apple hires. The company recently hired Kurt Adelberger, a former Googler who is named on several patents relating to how electric vehicles store energy as well as ways in which they can be charged more efficiently. Reuters also notes that Apple has hired former BMW employee Rónán Ó Braonáin, who has worked on integrating charging stations into homes, while it also recently hired Nan Liu, an engineer who has researched wireless charging for electric vehicles

Although Apple has not denied that it is working on an electric vehicle project, it has not officially confirmed it either, for at least two reasons -- it is loathe to talk publicly about projects as it can give potential competitors an insight into its strategy, while it also avoids discussing projects publicly as some, if not many, of its internal projects do not necessarily translate directly into shipping products. However, it can also be said that circumstantial evidence surrounding "Project Titan," the internal codename for Apple's rumored electric car project, appears to becoming more concrete with each passing week.

[Inkling]

Everyone in the electric car market including Apple needs to settle on a common standard for recharging stations. Otherwise, the public is going to get ticked off to hear, "Oh, we don't have any chargers for the Apple Car in this town. You'll have to go the Rock Bluff forty miles away for that." That's not what you want to hear when you've only got twenty miles of charge left.

[anthology123]

Not to worry, you can bet Apple will have their line of dongles and adapters for electric cars, too.

[coffeetime]

Tesla car comes with different adaptors so it's compatible with every chargers in this planet. I am sure Apple will do the same. Tesla's new power station takes an hour+ to charge where as older standard charger takes several more hours. I am pretty sure Apple wants to beat that record. Electric cars are great for going work and then back home because you leave it in your garage to charge overnight. For traveling out of state, it's extremely inconvenience (even the dashboard map tells you where to go, still....).