I found an early Hyundai/Apple car prototype released in 2013. The final production version will be shaped and painted as an Apple...
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Apple Hires Former Porsche Chassis Vice President for Apple Car Project
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I wonder how big Apple’s aspirations are. Where will their conquest stop? After Apple Car will they make Apple House? I don’t think they’ll be able to make Apple City or Apple Land though because they’ll want complete sovereignty but won’t get it. So maybe they’ll build their own Apple Land in outer space. But it will have to be large and spherical to have enough gravity to keep people grounded. They should add a huge laser too to destroy planets that get in their way.
Of course it will, because that makes so much sense. Just gotta shake your head.
I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many an Apple product the past 30 years. It does not appear a car will be one of them... Unless there is an Apple Car SE model.
That sad, I'm interested to see what they can do in that space.
That sad, I'm interested to see what they can do in that space.
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Maybe Tesla makes the car itself look easy, but it's not. All the other car manufacturers, many of which have been around for >100 years, still trail far behind Tesla just in the aspects of the car itself.
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Well, Porsche really, really knows how to build cars well, and I expect a LOT of their excellent handling is down to the chassis design. Don't know anything about this particular hire of course, but unless he was some sort of really poor hiring choice by Porsche in the first place, this is probably good news for the Apple Car project.
Wow, the Apple Car rumors are everywhere now... but what is their end goal? Ride-hailing, autonomous software, electric car... no clarity on that. Is it just an electric car? Still not sure why they would do that. Still, if Apple is getting into cars, I'm glad to see rumors somewhat point to a standalone EV. Rumors a few years ago leaned towards autonomous software being licensed. Apple's whole MO is to design the whole stack, so I hope they stick to that for cars, too.
This is going to compete agains the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, not the Camry and Accord.
Yup. Complete garbage that's just a poor copy of Germany's ideas. While there are worse companies to partner with, I am so surprised they chose Hyundai. Probably because Hyundai is right by John Wayne airport.
Seriously? What do you drive?
Hyundai is a serious manufacturer of cars, mostly value cars, but this “junk” thesis is an outdated one.
Hyundai is well above industry average in vehicle dependability studies and has the best warranty in the industry.
I wouldn’t necessarily drive a Hyundai in its current form because I prefer German cars, but German cars aren’t more reliable, aside from Porsche.
Hyundai is certainly a manufacturing force. They know how to produce reliable cars and lots of them For good value.
The facilities doesn’t define the product. I don’t think VW is going to tell you exactly how much of a Bugatti is actually made suspiciously close to Skoda.
1: This is exactly the reason to partner with an experienced and efficient partner (who has a 7 year warranty on their cars by the way). Like Foxconn making iPhones.
2: Tesla still hasn’t learned how to make cars. They are gadgets, not cars. Noone in their right mind would buy one based on core quality, if it didn’t have the bells and whistles. FYI, “Made in America” is not seen as a positive if you live in Europe... Sorry to break it to you. I’ll take korean over american cars any day of the week (although the one I actually own is built in UK).
Manufacturing in a Hyundai plant does not mean the car is Hyundai based. It’s like saying the earlier iPhones were Samsung based. It’s just logistics, it doesn’t matter who made it.
You can buy BMW’s with Citroen engines, Mercedes with Renault engines etc. Seriously, this is a non-issue to anyone who actually knows a sliver of how modern auto manufacturing works.
Not going to happen. Since when was Apple a value focused brand, or trying to gain a majority market share? I fully expect them to make a product we would die for, with certain quirks that makes us cringe but endure, and sell it at a price just enough above what we would like to pay to make us all cry.
Like some podcaster I forgot the name of usually says: When thinking about what a new Apple product “should” cost, double that the round up. Then you have the actual price.
I do expect them to come with a new take on the “mix” of features in a car, but I don’t have the fantasy to suggest how. All the “Apple-y” things such as nickle-and-diming us on the extras are already being done by most of the auto industry. Anyone making the joke about wheels costing extra hasn’t looked down a price list of options from any major car manufacturer recently...
Haha, your lack of experience is on craziness level.
Have you ever watched Tesla ramping up the car production - its hell - how could apple EVER do what you suggested that complete impossible!
Apple pricing policy has always been "we are charging you a little bit more but our product is superior". This has worked for phones, tablets, computers, etc where this "a little bit more" is a few hundred bugs. When we talk about car, a "little bit more" could be tens of thousand of dollars that many just cannot afford to pay. If Apple wants to sell the car in any meaningful numbers and have any market share, it should be positioned in price range where a middle class man can afford it. Any car priced above 80-90k$ is a very niche product for the only 1% of the population. It worked for Tesla with the first Model S when it was the only EV, but now the market is different and there are other much more cheaper options. If the most popular EV now is Tesla Model 3 at 35k$, Apple cant go anywhere above 50$k for similar type of vehicle.
The other factor is that we are talking about different dimensions here. One thing is paying a premium of 300$ for a laptop, and another thing is paying a premium of 15,000$ or more for a car. It should be one hell of car.
Porsche is not really known for their innovative design, but rather for their almost obsessive refinement of a single design. The 911 has been relentlessy refined through the decades but still maintains the lines of the original. It's really quite extraordinary when compared with the evolution of other vehicles like the Corvette, Firebird, and Camero. Manfred Harrer may be an excellent fit for Apple if he brings this sort of understanding to the Apple Car.
Very high end readily brings to mind cars like the Bentley Mulsanne, the Audi R8, and the Acura NSX. Just look at these sexy girls. You won't get this in under 150K range.
Which is why Apple will not be going in that direction.
I don't know. The article says "very high end". If this is true, then it will certainly be over 100K. But it would be very cool to see Apple bring it in at 80K or thereabouts.