Apple has ramped up the electric car project hiring in Ulrich Kranz, a former BMW executive and the recently departed CEO and co-founder of EV startup Canoo.
This was confirmed to The Verge last week, showing signs that Apple are taking the vehicle prospect even more seriously.
Kranz will be working under the formed Tesla executive Doug Field, who currently runs day to day operations on project ‘Titan’.
The BMW i3 and i8 models came to fruition with the assistance of Kranz, however following the release at the end of 2016 he moved across to an EV startup of Faraday Future.
This new fledged position did not last long following a clash with the founder of the company in 2017.
Following this a new startup was formed, focused on EV’s the company became known as Canoo.
This new company went on to develop an all electric van which was planned to be sold on a subscription basis to customers.
The subscription based model alongside the van itself where unveiled in 2019 designed around a compact platform including the battery pack electric motors another vehicle electronics.
The vehicle was modular therefore parts could be swapped and changed as and when they expired, rather than having to buy a new car.
Canoo Was hoping to sell or licence the concept two other manufacturers, this plan was enough to excite Apple.
In 2020 Apple orchestrated the first conversations with the young startup company, however talks eventually broke down as Canoo was looking for investment whereas Apple was looking at acquisition.
Canoo also was in discussions with Hyundai at the time however the starter also walked away from this deal.
Fortunately Kranz has landed on his feet finding himself near the top of a very large team at apple working on an all electric autonomous vehicle.
The project got underway in 2014 however multiple revisions mean it is not clear what the final rendition will become.
