It has long been rumored that Apple is working on an electric car, and Apple’s hires over the past year or so seems to indicate that Apple has some kind of interest in automotive technology. However Apple’s secretive nature also means that to date, we have yet to get any kind of confirmation from the Cupertino company.
That being said, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has pretty much said that Apple’s plans are an open secret. Speaking to the BBC in an exclusive interview, Musk said, “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it.” However instead of seeing Apple as a potential threat, he believes that Apple’s involvement will actually help expand the industry.
He adds, “Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same helping other companies to make electric cars as well.” Pretty ironic considering that just last year, he derided Apple’s hiring of Tesla employees, calling Apple “Tesla’s graveyard”.
In more recent times, however, Apple has registered several domains that are related to cars. It is possible that Apple could just be trying to protect themselves from cybersquatting, or to prevent websites claiming to be them. No word on when Apple will actually reveal their electric car, or if it would end up being like the rumored Apple HDTV, a lot of talk but no actual product.