In five years, Apple aims to have an electric car in production and humming along the highway soon after electric vehicles from Google, General Motors and Tesla hit the road.
An exclusive Bloomberg report, which cited sources with knowledge of the automotive strategy, noted Apple's hefty cash reserves of $178 billion and its record-setting profit of $18 billion just in the recent quarter as driving forces behind an electric car initiative.
As industry watchers pointed out, Apple's foray into a new industry aligns with the company's record of successful business moves in the past. The company is not known for being the first to break ground in a new market, but for jumping into a market only when its products have become better developed and more advanced than those of early market vendors.
Apple has supposedly assembled a 200-expert team for the car-making effort, and CEO Tim Cook has openly discussed its in-car system CarPlay development effort, calling it "key to our future." The iOS-based platform will provide drivers access to Apple services such as iTunes and messaging.
Apple's recent hiring efforts regarding robotics have spurred rumors in the past few weeks that the iPhone maker was moving toward developing a driverless or self-driving vehicle.
Apple's effort to hire car battery gurus has ignited a legal battle this month with A123 Systems, a battery maker, which claims Apple is poaching employees. The suit also names five such employees who A123 claim are in breach of non-disclosure clauses in leaving the company.
Another news report claimed Apple hired on Johann Jungwirth, former CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, who left Mercedes-Benz in September.
Bloomberg's report noted that if Apple is working on an electric car and intends to have production going by 2020, then it is an extremely aggressive -- and hopeful -- roadmap, given an expert's insight that such an endeavor often takes nearly twice as long even for longtime market-leading car makers
Tesla and General Motors Co. are aiming to get an electric vehicle on the car lot by 2017, costing under $40,000.
"If you're starting from scratch, you're probably talking more like 10 years," stated Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group. "A car is a very complex technological machine."
Virag is not the only one scoffing a bit at the timeframe and strategy. Well-known Apple watcher Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reportedly told clients in a note this week that it's more likely "that we get a TV from Apple in the next five years than a car."
