Apple may be building more than just an electric car
Samantha Lee/Business Insider
Apple may be laying the groundwork to unveil its first electric car.
The tech giant is reportedly interested in rolling out its own charging stations for electric vehicles, a move that suggests the company wants to have the infrastructure in place for its own electric car.
According to a Reuters report, the iPhone maker has recruited several experts in the field and is in talks with several companies already in the business of building charging stations.
While Apple has never publicly said it is developing an electric car, the company has hired a number of auto and charging experts that suggest some sort of car project is in the works.
According to the Reuters piece, Apple has hired at least four charging experts from various backgrounds.
One of those hires includes Kurt Adelberger, a former Google engineer who worked on developing energy storage and charging technology.
According to Adelberger's LinkedIn, he left Google in July 2015 for Apple, where he is now a product designer. However, as Quartz first reported earlier this month, Adelberger had co-authored a patent prior to leaving Google for a smart charging system that would basically make the whole process more seamless and more affordable.
Apple has also hired a number of former Tesla employees, including Chris Porritt, the former vice president of engineering at Tesla Motors.
While some of its auto hires are based in California, the company reportedly also has a team involved with the project in Europe.
In April, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that Apple had also set up a hub in Berlin where it has a separate team of engineers working on the project.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.