Apple has hired 4 electric vehicle charging experts including one from Google.
According to sources familiar with the matter at hand, Apple is in the process of investigating how to charge electric cars. It is talking to station companies and is hiring engineers with expertise in this area.
It has been more than a year now that Silicon Valley has been humming with the grapevine that Apple has plans of building an electric car. Now that the company is doing its due diligence in setting up the infrastructure for such a product, the rumors are set to be true.
Apple’s latest moves essentially cover critical shortcomings of electric vehicles – charging of batteries. With this move, it appears that Apple is trying to position itself in a strategic location as charging stations could play a significant role in tomorrow’s electric vehicles.
Apple’s design philosophy has helped transform consumer electronics. Hopefully, its foray into the sector could give it that extra boost.
Despite its moves, Apple has yet however to acknowledge its electric car project. Sources too have not been able to specifically confirm Apple electric car project. They have however confirmed that Cupertino was building charging stations.
With the smartphone saturating, Apple is probably looking for other avenues to bring in the moolah, opined automotive industry pundits.
As per a source with knowledge of the matter, Apple is asking charging station companies regarding their underlying technologies. The source however clarified that the talks are not focused on charging facilities for electric vehicles, but on the technologies of electric cars themselves.
As you might expect, there is an element of obfuscation in play with charging companies not willing to disclose too much a company which could suddenly turn out to be their rivals.
It is not yet clear whether Apple will go the Tesla motors way and bring in its own proprietary technology or would design a system which is compatible with others in the market.
Charging companies are also mum on the matter. That could however be a sign of working hand-in-hand with Apple, since such a collaboration would typically involve a non-disclosure agreements.
However, Arun Banskota, president of NRG Energy Inc’s electric vehicle charging business, EVgo, said that his company was “in discussions with every manufacturer of today and every potential manufacturer of tomorrow.”
According to a LinkedIn review, Apple has hired at least four vehicle charging specialists including Rónán Ó Braonáin, who formerly worked at BMW, Nan Liu, an engineer who earlier pursued a new form of wireless charging for electric vehicles, and Kurt Adelberger, a former Google charging expert.
The electric vehicle charging station scene is led by Tesla, which has a proprietary network of charging stations for its customers, who can also opt for normal public chargers called Level 2. Tesla’s chargers, called “Superchargers” however can juice up a car in just 30 minutes. Tesla’s superchargers can charger twice as fast as Level 2 chargers.
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