“Electrek, in collaboration with our sister-site 9to5Mac, has exclusively discovered and confirmed respectively that Apple hired former Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering and former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Chris Porritt, to work on ‘special projects,’ and we know that ‘special projects’ is where Apple’s Titan car project lives,” Fred Lambert reports for Electrek.
“Coincidentally (or not), a recent report claimed that Steve Zadesky, the Apple executive believed to be leading Project Titan, left the company earlier this year,” Lambert reports. “If Zadesky indeed left the company, it would make newly hired Porritt Apple’s most senior ‘car guy’ and a likely candidate to lead the Cupertino company’s electric car initiative. ”
“Before moving to Silicon Valley, Porritt was a key engineer in the UK automotive industry. He started as an intern at Land Rover in 1987 and rose to the role of Principal Engineer in Vehicle Dynamics by 1997. The engineer then went to work for Aston Martin where he held a Chief Engineer role until 2013, when he joined Tesla as Vice President of Vehicle Engineering,” Lambert reports. “At Aston Martin, Porritt was credited with making some of the company’s most iconic vehicles in recent years, including the One-77 supercar, V12 Zagato and Aston Martin DB9.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jony’s happier now.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Car: Jony Ive unhappy with ‘Project Titan’ progress, Apple implements hiring freeze, source says – January 25, 2016Avoid Tesla because hydrogen is the new electric – March 7, 2016
Apple leases 96,000-square-foot industrial facility as car talk swirls – March 3, 2016
Apple’s lease of old Sunnyvale Pepsi bottling plant hints at Project Titan expansion – March 1, 2016
Apple silent on mysterious noises coming from clandestine complex – February 27, 2016
Loud, late-night ‘motor noises’ emanate from Apple’s secret vehicle testing center – February 11, 2016
Apple Car: Forget ‘electric,’ think hydrogen fuel cells – February 20, 2015
Inside Apple’s top-secret ‘Titan’ electric car project – March 13, 2015
Tesla beware: Apple may have found the holy grail of electric vehicles – August 25, 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
The new Apple Toaster.
Wow, memories.
Apple Television.
Oh now I am beginning to really want that car having spent the past 30 wanting an Aston.
But will it come with an ejector seat?
Me too. Had the pleasure of driving a Vanquish for a couple of days and loved it.
Finally. My self driving MacPro.
When Apple gets a Tesla engineer, Elon Musk will spin this as “Apple is the graveyard for failed auto engineers from Tesla”, and if the move is in the opposite direction, he proudly claims how he poached “Apple’s best and brightest right from under Tim Cook’s nose”…
😉
Bag of Hurt
This is what happens when a company has too much money and not enough focus. It stops delivering what its customers ask for, and instead launches secret internal pet projects to stroke the egos of executives who have completely lost touch with their customers.
No automaker consistently makes the kind of margins Apple makes on its electronics. There is simply no business case for Apple to weaken itself burning resources to earn less ROI.
Every day I miss Steve Jobs more. He understood that importance of focus.
You state as a matter of fact that Apple has no business case due to the low margins of traditional auto manufacturers. Why would you assume that Apple has any intent of modeling their operations on that traditional business model? They are looking at the business case very intently. The fact that they’ve funded the internal development this far indicates that they believe they have a path to make a compelling product with higher margins. They may not have worked out the details and they likely have significant risks they have to mitigate. But I’m convinced that they believe they can do it. Time will tell.
First, Apple doesn’t actually manage any high-volume labor-intensive manufacturing. It outsources that to Foxconn. Low-production trashcan Macs are made by robot.
So you think they’re going to revolutionize the auto industry with some exciting new manufacturing method? Premium automakers, including Tesla, have that down pat.
So what else is Apple going to bring to the table? Fashion? Exclusivity? Rose Gold paint?
I simply don’t see any easy path to high profits. I see executives with too much money who are being asked to come up with something new and exciting. And they don’t have enough focus to keep their current businesses (the Mac especially) relevant. It pains me to say that Apple’s poor treatment of Mac users makes me question whether I would actually trust the company to provide the user-configurability and support after the sale that I get today in most other cars.
If they can produce a vehicle that can get something like 1000 miles per charge via better battery tech and/or transparent solar cells or convert water vapor into hydrogen onboard the vehicle then they could probably charge a premium. If the average vehicle owner spends $15,000 in gasoline over a ten year period then they could sell the vehicle for higher margins, because there will be significant cost savings.
For example, Tesla is selling the Model 3 for $35,000. Tax credits bring it down to $28,000. Then deduct the lower maintenance costs compared to ICE vehicles and the Model 3 is now at $25,000. deduct the gasoline, but add back in the cost of batteries and some electricity in ten years and the Model 3 drops to around $18,000. A comparable ICE vehicle cost around $40,000 today. This means consumers are saving about $22,000 over a ten year period if they purchase the Model 3. Tesla or Apple could charge at least another $5000 and the consumer is still saving $17,000 over ten years.
I think Tesla’s margins have been around 20%, but if they add $5000 to the price of the vehicle then margins are 30%. Selling a million of these $40,000 cars a year is equivalent to selling about 40 million iPhones, or if they sell 5 million cars a year then it’s equivalent to selling 200 million iPhones. Apple currently has probably around 500 million to 600 million device users and growing. I don’t think it will be too difficult to scrounge-up 5 million Apple Car sales every year, especially if the vehicle changes the game.
If, If, If.
First, everything is a tradeoff. Batteries simply don’t have the energy density of hydrocarbons, so range will always be traded off against weight/cost/size. Tesla is near the cutting edge today, I don’t see why you think Apple has a magic bullet to go further than that.
Tax credits are drying up rapidly. Maybe they will be renewed, maybe they won’t. A good business model shouldn’t rely on them.
While your math sounds interesting, it’s both unproven and incomplete (obviously there is a limit to the detail you can offer in a blog format). But bottom line, you’re speculating what Apple might do as compared to a straw man car. You should know better. The second any Apple prototype hits the streets, you know that Lexus, Merc, BMW, Audi, Tesla, Cadillac, and others will immediately respond with either improved designs or with financial incentives.
You may think that Apple fans will immediately ditch their current cars, but I assure you that will not be the case when the market is so full of competent competitors.
An Apple sticker does not guarantee high margins, especially when you factor in startup costs. The competitors will be more agile because they are already manned up. Do you really think current Apple retail stores are ready to serve Apple Car customers? Do you think 30 Berliners and an ex-Tesla VP are going to be able to offer prospective car buyers a full range of cars to meet their specific needs? I think not. Like Tesla, the first model will be exclusive, niche, and definitely not ready for prime time. I see no point in Apple following in Tesla’s footsteps. I highly doubt that Apple would be able to ramp up sales any faster than Tesla has been able to do.
If Cook wants to enter the car industry, then Apple should stop dinking around and buy a car company or two. Apple hasn’t because the board is smart enough to advise him not to. But of course they overlook the millions of dollars Cook choses to blow on pet projects because now at Apple, that’s just pocket change that they are happy to throw away.
Meanwhile people like me are waiting years for Mac hardware updates and software fixes. The focus is gone. Another two years of this, and my business will move away from Macs too — they just don’t offer high value anymore.
guess that motor trend hatchet job needs to be redrawn based on Apple hiring an engineer – cuz Jony Ive could carve a better car out of a bar of soap.
but Ive just can’t seem to scrounge up enough time to design new Macs, new displays, new Airports, or new iPods. Apple would make more money and make more people happy to improve its current range rather than join Tesla selling niche cars that would appeal to a narrow segment of the population.