Apple talks with Mercedes detailed in new Apple Car report
As you may be familiar with by now, Apple has officially canceled its project to build an electric car. The project never saw the light of day and wasn’t even confirmed by Apple, but the company had been working on its own car since 2014. Following reports that Apple had approached Tesla for a partnership, we now know that the company has also talked to Mercedes-Benz about building an Apple Car together.
Apple tried to build an Apple Car with Mercedes-Benz
As reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Apple tried to negotiate a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to build an Apple Car. The report says that talks “progressed further” for months and both companies had been actively working on an electric car project together. However, while Mercedes would build the Apple Car, it also wanted to sell its own cars using Apple’s self-driving platform.
Apple eventually withdrew from the partnership as the company’s executives were confident that Apple could build a car on their own after all the early work with Mercedes. The company also reportedly discussed with Ford the possibility of the car manufacturer selling an Apple Car under its Lincoln brand, but the talks “didn’t progress past an early meeting.”
In the past, Apple had some discussions with Elon Musk about buying Tesla to build its car. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly pulled the plug on the deal during early negotiations. At some point, Apple executives met with Musk again to discuss other ways of collaborating, such as buying batteries from Tesla.
Interestingly, Bloomberg says that Apple came close to a deal to buy luxury automaker McLaren. At the time, Jony Ive was still working for the company and would get a new design studio in London to work on the project. The deal didn’t go ahead either.
The idea of an Apple Car came from Steve Jobs
Although the Titan project (the codename for the Apple Car) emerged in 2014, the idea came from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs years ago. “In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, with American car companies on the brink of failure, the Apple chief executive even floated the idea of acquiring General Motors Co. for pennies on the dollar,” the report says.
Tony Fadell, considered the father of the iPod, confirmed that he and Jobs talked about “what would be this generation’s new Volkswagen Beetle.” However, as the company focused on making the iPhone a hit, Jobs decided it wasn’t time to start a car project.
An ambitious project
Under Cook’s direction, the Titan project was quite ambitious. One of the prototypes looked like a white minivan with “rounded sides, an all-glass roof, sliding doors and whitewall tires.” The vehicle would have a giant screen, a powerful audio system, and reclining seats that made the cabin look like a club.
The Apple Car was first designed to have a Level 5 autonomous driving system, meaning that it would drive itself entirely using its onboard computer with no steering wheel or pedals. The only manual controls would be a “video-game-style controller or iPhone app” which would serve as a backup.
Doug Field, head of the project, warned executives about the challenges of building an autonomous car and suggested scaling back the goals to Level 3, which requires a human driver to take control in some situations. However, Apple executives still wanted a Level 5 car.
Frustrations over the car’s project
The project hadn’t made much progress by 2016 and the board of directors was already questioning the viability of the Apple Car. Dan Riccio then convinced Bob Mansfield, known for his role in Apple’s hardware team, to join the car team. Mansfield focused on working on the autonomous driving system rather than the car itself.
Some executives believed that Apple could license its technologies to other car manufacturers. Mansfield and Cook agreed to build a self-driving shuttle in partnership with Volkswagen to be used by Apple employees on its campus. However, the project was seen as a distraction and was also shut down.
The report says that many Apple executives have been frustrated by Cook’s indecision over the direction of the Titan project. In the meantime, as the project was going nowhere, engineers hired to work on the car were leaving Apple to work for other companies. From 2016 to 2018, Apple had already laid off 120 people from the car project.
Sources told Bloomberg that Apple has estimated the production cost of its car at around $120,000, far above the target of $85,000.
The end of the Apple Car
Apple has made a lot of changes to the leadership of the Titan project since then, but none of them have resulted in anything promising. At one point, Apple put a fleet of Lexus SUVs customized with its own self-driving technology on the streets for testing purposes. The plan was to expand these tests to more cities by 2024. The company wanted to sell self-driving as a subscription service.
Last year, before giving up on the project for good, the designers and engineers decided to experiment with a Level 2 autonomous car – the same as the Tesla Autopilot. But that would make the Apple Car look like any other electric car already available on the market without much of a difference.
Kevin Lynch is said to have convinced Apple’s leadership that building a fully autonomous car would take at least another decade. Earlier this year, Cook was already considering shutting down the project as key engineers and executives were already joining other companies.
On February 26, around 2,000 Apple employees received an email about a meeting the following day. Lynch and Williams then confirmed that the Titan project was being shut down without further explanation. Some of the engineers have been relocated to Apple’s AI and software division.
The failed car project cost Apple around $1 billion a year. Be sure to read the full article with even more details about the Apple Car project.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. The best part? No one will call you until after you’ve elected to move forward. Get started, hassle-free, by clicking here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. The best part? No one will call you until after you’ve elected to move forward. Get started, hassle-free, by clicking here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. The best part? No one will call you until after you’ve elected to move forward. Get started, hassle-free, by clicking here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut