The tech giant Apple has already dominated the electronic industry with its remarkable products and now rumours suggest that it will also play its part in the automotive industry. Although, there isn’t any official word on it, but some recent developments such as the ‘Project Titan’ give us a hint that company might be working towards developing an all-electric Apple iCar with autonomous capabilities. TopSpeed has gone a step ahead and created Apple iCar renderings taking help from all the previous speculated drawings.
There is no doubt about the fact that Apple is actually interested in developing a vehicle and gets a pie in the automobile industry. One of the Apple board of directors also confirmed that it was Steve Job’s dream to design an Apple iCar.
Rumours
In February 2015, Dodge Caravan minivans were spotted in California driving around with massive equipment on the roof. Apple later acknowledged that it was using these vans for mapping purposes and not to test the self-driving technology.
A few days later, a Business Insider report stated that an anonymous Apple employee emailed them telling about a product which Apple is developing, and it will compete with Tesla Motors with its new product.
Following the Business Insider report, a Wall Street Journal also made a claim that Apple is in fact developing an electric car and this project will be known as Project Titan.
Reports also indicate that Apple has even hired around 1,000 employees and a lot of them are former workers of famous automobile companies including Tesla, Mercedes, GM and Ford.
Moreover, in 2016, Apple invested more than 30% compared to last year on research and development, which points to the direction, something is definitely cooking inside their new facility in California.
Exterior
Here we can only make an educated guess, as nothing is clear so far. Rumours were rife about Apple’s partnership with BMW to create an i3 like car. Some reports suggest the Apple iCar would be a minivan, so engineers can play around and fit in the entire autonomous tech. TopSpeed guess is that it would be a mid-range car like Toyota Prius V with gentle curves and a back-to-fundamentals approach.
Interior
Expect the interior to have adequate space to house 4 passengers along with rear cargo space. There are conflicting reports on fully autonomous and semi autonomous Apple iCar. If we go with the former, there will be swiveling front seat, with no steering wheel and pedals. However, there will be a big touchscreen display on the dash that feature car controls. Of course, iPhone and iCar integration would be the prime consideration for Apple. Just think of the Apple iCar an iPhone on the wheels for easy understanding.
Drivetrain and Handling
Here again, we cannot say anything with a strong belief. Considering the fact, it would be an electric car competing against the likes of Tesla Model S and Porsche Mission E, it must come with a better EV range like 350 miles per charge with quick charging options. The Apple iCar could be a FWD, which makes more sense to me, considering all-electric powertrains with front wheel drive are more efficient.
Apple iCar Price and Release Date
We believe that the Apple iCar may make its debut sometime in 2021 and will feature an advanced self-driving technology. The price guess for the iCar, taking into account all the high-tech features, isn’t hard. It can be anything between $60,000 and $70,000. But all this could be true only if Apple really would go for it. The current news is that Apple has put the project on the back burner, but who knows if that’s done to divert the attention away.