BMW’s CEO Harald Krüger thinks an Apple Car modelled on BMW’s electric i3 vehicle would be a “nice idea,” although he’s keeping tight-lipped about the chances of it actually happening.
And when there’s the potential of iPhone money involved, who can blame him?
“There are always rumours in our business, but as you know we are working together with a lot of IT companies like Google, like Apple, to integrate the smartphones into the cars,” Krüger said in an interview with CNBC at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
“But there is nothing more to add at this moment of time because we definitely look into the future development of the BMW group and digitalization of our business is [what] I would call it the top trend of our business.”
According to rumors, Apple previously expressed its interest in using BMW’s i3 carbon fiber body as the basis for an electric Apple Car. Tim Cook is even said to have met with senior managers from the i3 production team during a trip to Leipzig last year. However, negotiations to use the car are reported to have broken off.
Apple’s mysterious “Project Titan” has supposedly got hundreds of employees working on it at present, but it’s unknown how involved BMW might be.
The pressure of keeping any arrangement under wraps might be getting too much for Harald Krüger, though. He fainted on stage during BMW’s press conference at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and subsequently cancelled his appointments and returned home to recover.
Source: CNBC
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Apple Car based on BMW i3 would be a ‘nice idea,’ says CEO”
“The pressure of keeping any arrangement under wraps might be getting too much for Harald Krüger, though. He fainted on stage during BMW’s press conference at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and subsequently cancelled his appointments and returned home to recover.”
Yeah, because running a “luxury” automobile brand is not stressful enough.
An Apple Car based on a BMW… Hmm, those JD Power reliability scores won’t be too high…
You really think Jony Ive would surrender the chance to design a car.
All major brands have ‘family traits’ – grille design, curves etc. Why would Apple constraint themselves
Let’s hope the “Apple car” will have a better range on a full charge than a BMW i3 (70 miles)
Could I ask, that with all our current technology, why someone does not create a pure electric car with two batteries? While in motion the car runs off one battery, and the forward motion of the vehicle rotates a generator that charges the second battery. Then when the in use battery gets down to a certain point, it automatically switches to the other battery and the drained battery starts receiving the charge. In addition, maybe an appropriately sized solar roof panel could also assist in charging and vehicle operations.
Gee, a completely self-contained vehicle, what a thought! It may or may not be possible, but I can dream. :-)
Two minutes of education will tell you that so-called Perpetual Motion Machines are impossible.