Apple may have hundreds of people working on an electric car that looks like a minivan

Adding to the recent reports about an Apple vehicle, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has hundreds of people working on an electric vehicle under the code-name Titan.

The current design apparently looks like a minivan.

This is just the latest story this week about Apple building a car. It seemed like a far-fetched idea a month ago, but now?

To recap:

• In early February, an unmarked minivan was spotted driving around with a weird camera on it. It was traced back to Apple. People thought it could be a test of self driving car technology, or it could be a camera to capture street images for Apple Maps.
• A short while after that, an Apple employee emailed us unexpectedly to say, "Apple's latest project is too exciting to pass up. I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money."
• Next, Bryan Chaffin at The Mac Observer reported that his sources said Apple was working on a car. He said, "What I learned is that Apple has been looking for-and acquiring-the kind of people from Tesla with expertise that is most suited to cars. So much so that I went from being a doubter to a believer almost instantly."
• Then, the Financial Times reported that Apple had a secret facility with "dozens" of people working on a car. The FT quotes somebody close to Apple saying that it initially seemed that the company was just working on the in-car experience, but "Today I think it's a car."

Getty Images/Michael KovacApple head designer Jony Ive.

Now, the Journal adds a lot more detail to these reports.

Apparently the project has been underway for more than a year and has hundreds of people working on it. It's reportedly being led by Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer who also helped build the iPhone. Johann Jungwirth, the chief of research and development at Mercedes-Benz in North America, was hired away in September to help run the project, too.

Apple investigates new product areas all the time, and there's a chance this won't ever come to market, but the size of the team and the executives hired to work on it make it seem pretty serious. Plus, apparently Steve Jobs was talking about an iCar in 2009, and chief designer Jony Ive has had a bit of an obsession with the poor design of American cars.

Tim Cook coyly hinted last year that Apple had projects that nobody knew about. It appears that this vehicle is one of them.

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