It was only a matter of time before Samsung did something to try and thwart Apple’s unconfirmed automotive aspirations.
The Korean iPhone competitor has bought the battery pack division of a leading automative supplier only a couple of weeks after it was reported that Apple had met with the company.
On February 13th, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had visited the luxury vehicle unit of Magna International in Austria as part of its codenamed “Titan” car project. Magna is a Canadian company that primarily supplies auto parts in North America.
In a press release today, Samsung said it bought Magna for an undisclosed sum to “enhance Samsung SDI’s capabilities in batteries for electric vehicles.” Samsung also gets all 264 employees of Magna Steyr, the high-end division Apple reportedly met with.
Samsung SDI already makes batteries for car companies like BMW and, ironically enough, Apple. So there’s always a chance that Samsung’s purchase could make its way into some kind of Apple car in a roundabout way.
But given that Apple has been aggressively poaching automotive talent from Tesla and others, it’s still too early to tell. A report this morning said that Apple has successfully poached battery experts from Samsung.
