Rumors have been going around for years that Apple is preparing an electric car. Specifically, since 2014 there has been some type of information about the popularly known ‘Apple Car’. This week it has become known that they have signed a former Lamborghini engineer, who worked on chassis and dynamics, but also in recent days we have been able to learn that Apple has been working on his car since 2000.
The Cupertino company owes its current success to the iPhone, but the truth is that they have been diversifying its product portfolio for years, which previously relied on the iPod. Now, they are not only focused on products but are also especially focused on services. And indeed, since 2014 we have been receiving information, albeit slowly, about a car in development. And now we know that Apple, formerly headed by Steve Jobs and now Tim Cook, has been working on it since 2000. Yes, according to this information, the Cupertino firm has been registering patents for its electric car for 22 years.
The Apple car: 248 patents registered since 2000, 22 years of project
Intellectual Property Landscape has revealed that Apple has already registered 248 patents that have some kind of relationship with its electric car. The usual thing is that a company like Apple begins to register patents, it only takes 18 months until something related to that technology or invention is published. However, in the case of this electric car, patents have been registered since the year 2000, at an average rate of 10 patents each year.
If the detail of this patent history is reviewed, it can be seen that 2017 was its strongest year, the year in which Apple was most focused on the development of this new electric vehicle. Everything points to the fact that 66 patents related to this project were registered during that year alone. And in the year 2020, however, there were ‘only’ 27 patents were registered. And we have evidence that in the year 2021 5 patents were registered; but while they take some time to publish, there are suspicions that many more technologies were registered during the year 2021 than in the entire previous year.
Officially there has been no information recently, nor over the last few years. The latest information we received is that it would be launched in 2025 and with some technologies from Hyundai. At the moment, as can be easily seen, not only is there little information, but also the information available is quite ‘weak’. Now, what is clear is that Apple has been developing technologies around its vehicle for 22 years, which will undoubtedly be an electric car.
It is a company with more than enough financial lungs to face entry into the automotive sector. And if we take into account that they have just hired a former Lamborghini engineer who spent his time at the Italian firm developing the chassis and dynamics, we have reason to believe that the development could be quite advanced.
