The information regarding the project intended to bring an Apple car to the market is becoming more and more contradictory, because today we learn that Apple is collaborating with Magna to produce an electric car. A few weeks ago we were told that Apple intends to produce software for autonomous guidance of cars to sell to car manufacturers, but today we read something else.
According to information provided by a large American publication, Apple has several dozen employees of Magna working in its laboratories in SunnyVale, California, on the development of an electric car. Magna is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world, but only on the assembly side, not on the creation of the car itself.
Those from Magna have already concluded a partnership with BMW to assemble part of their 5 Series models, and Magna's president hopes that IT companies will also become his clients. In the case of Apple, we are talking about an attempt to substantially reduce the development costs of its own car, and those from Magna have the necessary expertise to reduce the development time of the product.
"A completely new vehicle can cost several billion dollars, so leaning on the expertise of an industry veteran is a way of minimizing those costs. Apple has been quick to understand that: about a dozen Magna engineers have been working with the iPhone-maker's team in Sunnyvale to develop a vehicle, according to a person familiar with the arrangement."
Apple has over 1000 of its own engineers developing the car that should reach the market by 2021, but even so, there is little chance that that deadline will be reached. Magna was called in to help substantially reduce the development costs, but also the development time, and with their help Apple could have a chance to achieve its goals.
More than that, the people from Magna hope that Apple will become their client on the car assembly side, but it remains to be seen if this will happen.
"You could easily have enough business outsourced from the existing carmakers to fill up other contract assembly plants, or you could have new entrants that come in and say 'I really want to have something but do I really want to manufacture vehicles?,"' Magna Chief Executive Officer Donald Walker said in an interview at the company's headquarters in Aurora, Ontario."
