“Apple has big plans for north San Jose. In the past few months, Apple has spent more than $300 million quietly purchasing or leasing land close to San Jose International Airport and only 11 miles away from Apple Campus 2,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “In order to gain perspective on how much land Apple now has in north San Jose, Apple Campus 2 will have 3.4 million square feet of office space compared to the 4.3 million square feet of potential office space in north San Jose”
“What if instead of building another large office building in north San Jose, Apple is looking to build a research facility? What if this facility is actually a giant R&D complex in order to work on automobiles prototypes and conduct regulatory and safety testing? All of the evidence seems to point to such a thing,” Cybart writes. “Apple’s $304 million of land purchases in north San Jose hint at something much larger than simple office buildings, yet not quite large enough for a sprawling electric car manufacturing facility. Instead, a R&D complex for prototyping and testing various personal transport initiatives is the leading candidate.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last week, “That’s a helluva lot of space; for something big, as in ‘Project Titan’ big?”
SEE ALSO:
Apple eyes huge development deal of up to 4.15 million square feet in north San Jose; much larger than ‘spaceship’ campus – November 4, 2015
Tony Fadell: Steve Jobs considered an ‘Apple Car’ in 2008 – November 4, 2015
Bill Ford on Apple’s vehicle push: ‘It’s awesome’ – November 4, 2015
Analyst: Apple Car will cost an average of $55,000 – October 16, 2015
Apple speeds up electric-car efforts, aims for 2019 ‘ship date’ – September 21, 2015
Survey: 77% of hybrid or electric vehicle owners would likely buy an Apple Car – May 13, 2015
What to expect from the Apple Car: Disruption – August 31, 2015
Apple Car: Tesla engineer joins Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ vehicle effort – August 21, 2015
Apple Car development proceeds apace – July 27, 2015
Apple hires veteran Fiat Chrysler auto industry executive – July 20, 2015
What’s up with Carl Icahn’s sudden obsession with the Apple Car? – May 18, 2015
Survey: 77% of hybrid or electric vehicle owners would likely buy an Apple Car – May 13, 2015
Apple Car: Forget ‘electric,’ think hydrogen fuel cells – February 20, 2015
Apple working with Intelligent Energy on fuel cell technology for mobile devices, sources say – July 14, 2014
North Carolina regulators approve Apple’s 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility at Maiden data center – May 23, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
“land grab” — what is it with these so-called journalists? Buying land that is for sale and leasing land that is for lease in California is not a “land grab”.
The term means nominally legal but exploitative maneuvering in developing countries that screws the general population — rather akin to the scumbag “investment” tactics often criticized on this site.
To be fair the meaning has modified done what in recent years over its original literal origin. It now tends to be as much or more about grabbing an opportunity as effectively stealing.
I often witness a “crab grab” when a fresh batch comes out at the Chinese buffet.
For perspective, the GM assembly plant at Wentzville, MO is 75 acres under roof and is served by a meaningful rail operation for just in time component delivery.
Given the company’s mantra of Designed in California, their pride comes from that work, not assembly. And the patch of ground, while far from trivial, is not to scale for substantial assembly aspirations in the automotive space.
A lot of people seem to assume that Apple would need to make cars in a similar way to how conventional cars are made. Having seen how Jony Ive operates, my money would be on Apple Car being built in an entirely different way to traditional stamped metal car bodies and that the scale of the factory could be significantly smaller.
Starting from scratch with a free hand to design the vehicle, the drivetrain, the control systems, the manufacturing process and the factory that builds them, Apple can approach these challenges in all sorts of innovative ways. The one thing I think is certain is that it won’t be much like any existing car assembly plant.
Another advantage of starting from scratch would be that building subsequent factories anywhere in the world would be relatively straightforward if production needed to be increased.
what if they are going to bring computer manufacturing back to the united states so they can avoid having everything leaked to the press from china