“By now, the weight of the evidence that Apple is working on a car has become overwhelming, but an announcement out of the UK of a hydrogen fuel cell powered iPhone may shed the most light yet on Apple’s automobile project,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “The technology used to build the fuel cell powered iPhone could be used to build a fuel cell powered car, but not just any hydrogen powered car. The fuel cells powering the iPhone could amount to the Holy Grail of EV technology, able to provide long range combined with convenient and safe refueling almost anywhere.”
“The report of the fuel cell powered iPhone 6 contained important clues about the technology. The fuel cell was built by Intelligent Energy, a British startup with reported close ties to Apple,” Hibben writes. “The report also indicated that the hydrogen was stored at low pressure in some form of powdered medium.”
“Intelligent Energy’s iPhone fuel cell demonstrates impressive energy density, able to store about 4 KWh/liter. If the technology scales approximately as the current device, which is likely, then a gallon sized container would hold about 15 KWh,” Hibben writes. “Just 6 of these gallon containers would store as much energy as the Tesla Model S 85 KWh battery pack.”
“Also very impressive is the weight of the cells relative to the Tesla battery pack. The 85 KWh Model S battery pack is estimated to weigh about 1200 lbs. For a similar 85KWh of storage (6 gallon modules using the iPhone cell technology), the weight would be about 1/10th of that,” Hibben writes. “IE’s technology promises to be the Holy Grail of EV: an electric vehicle technology that provides long range, easy refueling, and which doesn’t require an enormous investment in refueling infrastructure.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in March on reports of Tesla welcoming Apple into the vehicle space:
Wonder if they – or any other vehicle maker – would welcome an Apple Car powered by hydrogen fuel cells?
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It is a mistake to look at the way the market is today, with low margins, and therefore conclude that Apple would ignore the market. The same goes for current technology. Who says Apple’s working on an electric plug-in car, for example?
Apple blows up markets and current technology for grins.
If you looked at the mobile phone market in 2002 and told people that, in five years, Apple begin to completely remake the cellphone industry, soon reaping nearly all of the profits in the process, with a $799+ pocket computer, you’d be laughed out of the room. (Of course, that didn’t stop us.)
Yes, it makes no sense for Apple to be developing a “car.” Apple developing a car makes perfect sense when you expect them to bring new things to the table to the table that will blown up and remake the current market. That’s what Apple does. If Apple can’t deliver paradigm shifts, then they don’t enter the market. — MacDailyNews Take, March 12, 2015
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“When Apple looks at what categories to enter, we ask these kinds of questions: What are the primary technologies behind this? What do we bring? Can we make a significant contribution to society with this? If we can’t, and if we can’t own the key technologies, we don’t do it. That philosophy comes directly from [Steve Jobs] and it still very much permeates the place. I hope that it always will.” – Apple CEO Tim Cook, March 18, 2015
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And as we wrote back in May:
Sleep tight, Elon.
Wonder who’d welcome an Apple Car powered by hydrogen fuel cells?
SEE ALSO:
Meet the hydrogen-powered Apple iPhone that runs for a week per cartridge – August 24, 2015
Apple Car: Tesla engineer joins Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ vehicle effort – August 21, 2015
Apple said to be in talks to use BMW i3 carbon fiber body as basis for its own electric car – July 27, 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