Report States Apple Is In Talks With BMW About Electric Car

According to German-language publication Manager Magazin, Apple has been in talks with BMW about using its i3 vehicle as the basis for an electric car. This comes as the latest in a long series of reports in recent times about Apple’s supposed involvement in the auto industry.

Reports have indicated that Apple has hundreds of employees working on its electric vehicle project, code-named “Project Titan.” Although there’s no way to know for certain if there will one day be a release of an Apple car, the company does appear to be increasingly interested in the world of automobiles.

Manager Magazin reports that talks between Apple and BMW started back in 2014, when they discussed using components from the German automaker’s i3 electric car. Reportedly, talks progressed to the point where Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with other Apple executives, visited BMW’s factory in Leipzig, Germany to see how the i3 is manufactured. Although these talks ultimately led nowhere, Apple and BMW supposedly agreed to compare notes on their progress periodically. The report doesn’t provide any details about what a partnership between Apple and BMW may have involved, but it does suggest Apple was interested in using the carbon fiber body of the i3 for its own electric car project.

The BMW i3 is a small electric passenger vehicle with a body that is manufactured from strong yet lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic. The i3 has a range of approximately 150 miles per charge when used with an optional range extender in the form of a gas-powered, two-cylinder engine. When it runs on battery power alone, the i3 has a maximum range of approximately 81 miles.

Reports about a possible Apple electric car first started earlier this year in February, when unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal that several hundred employees had been working on the project, after an approval from Cook one year earlier. Subsequent reports have indicated the company has poached automotive experts and intends to bring an Apple electric car to market by 2020.

This latest report marks the second round of rumors linking Apple and BMW in talks involving the i3. In March, German automotive magazine Auto Motor und Sport reported the two companies were discussing Apple’s use of i3 components for its own electric car. Some time later, a BMW representative denied these claims to Reuters, saying that, “We are in regular talks with companies from the IT and telecommunications sector, including Apple, concerning topics like connected vehicles. Developing or building a car is not a topic of these discussions.”

Although Apple has continued to decline to comment on the rumors and speculation surrounding the so-called “Apple car,” is the company secretly working on an electric car to compete in the auto market in the future?