German newspaper Handelsblatt is reporting that German carmakers Daimler and BMW won’t be collaborating with Apple on its rumored electric car, code-named Project Titan.
According to sources in the know, talks with Daimler and BMW over a cooperation deal on an electric car have ended. The talks with BMW collapsed last yea.
Those with Daimler have ended more recently, reportedly over the key questions like would lead the project and which company would have ownership of the data. Neither of the three companies would even confirm that negotiations had taken place.
“Apple wants the car to be closely built into its own cloud software, while the German carmakers have made customer data protection a key element of their future strategy,” reads the report.
Apple is said to be shopping for a manufacturing partner for its rumored electric car which the German publication claims would also be “at least partially self-driving.” One of the companies that could lend Apple its expertise in manufacturing an iCar is believed to be Canadian-Austrian firm Magna, which builds high-end, limited-edition vehicles for other car companies.
For instance, BMW has commission Magna to build more than 100,000 vehicles for them in the next seven years. Magna also built BMW’s Mini Paceman and Clubman. Influential German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said a few days ago that the iPhone maker is conducting search for German technology and specialists for its electric vehicle project out of an office in Berlin.
And last but not least, Electrek.co learned that Apple has hired former Tesla Vice President and Aston Martin engineer, Chris Porritt, to work on special projects. At Tesla, Porritt worked on both the Model S and Model X and on the Model 3 chassis.
And the plot thickens…
Source: Handelsblatt