Report: Apple wants to start producing cars in five years

Apple Inc., which has been working secretly on a car, is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020, people with knowledge of the matter said. The timeframe - automakers typically spend five to seven years developing a car - underscores the project’s aggressive goals and could set the stage for a battle for customers with Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Co., both of which are targeting a 2017 release of an electric vehicle that can go more than 320 km on a single charge and cost less than $40,000. Bloomberg was first to report citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”

Now you have Apple coming in and this is critical mass. Was GM really going to be able to match Tesla? Apple can.

Steve LeVine, author of “The Powerhouse,” a book about the automotive battery industry

Apple may decide to scrap its car effort or delay it if executives are unhappy with progress, as they’ve done before with other secret projects, the people said. The car team, which already has about 200 people, began ramping up hiring within the past couple of months as the company sought out experts in technologies for batteries and robotics, said one of the people. Apple’s possible foray into cars follows a similar path it’s taken to break into other industries. The company wasn’t the first to make a digital-music player or smartphone, and only entered those markets once it had a product that redefined those categories.

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