Rumor: Apple is investigating electric chargers for cars

Apple appears to be researching how to charge electric cars and in talks with companies that build charging stations. According to sources with whom the Reuters news agency spoke, the company is looking for engineers with expertise in that area, among other things.

Apple has never officially announced that it is working on an electric car, but the rumor mill has been running for quite some time. Now Apple seems to be in talks with developers and manufacturers of charging stations. According to Reuters, these are not conversations related to charging stations for Apple employees who already have an electric car, but conversations about the underlying technology. Reuters notes that the conversations were never reported by the manufacturers of the charging stations themselves, something that may have to do with the way Apple requires companies not to talk about contact.

The news agency received no response from various manufacturers when it asked questions about Apple, although NRG Energy did say that the company is in talks with ‘every manufacturer of today and every manufacturer of electric cars’ of electric cars. Reuters also examined LinkedIn profiles of people who recently joined Apple.

In addition, Apple has recently hired several electric car specialists, including former employees of BMW and Google, among others. According to his LinkedIn, BMW employee Rónán Ó Braonáin, for example, investigated the possibilities of integrating a charging infrastructure for the home, whereby an electric car also communicates with this system.

It is also unclear whether Apple’s goal will be to design its own system or to connect it to existing systems. According to previous rumors, Apple would like to have its first electric car ready in 2019. The development of this car would fall under ‘Project Titan’ and consist of a large project team of about 1800 employees. It would not be a self-driving car, but that functionality could be added later.