アップル社の電気自動車開発(Titan Project)に関する記事は山のように出ているが、この記事もその一つ。
中国系の充電インフラ会社のDidi Chuxingに$1B投資したとのこと。
この記事にあるように、カリフォルニア州には現時点では自宅外(職場＋公共)の充電施設が8,000箇所しか無いが、2020年にはその13倍(100,000箇所)から25倍(200,000箇所)必要になるという。
Apple has yet to confirm whether it's investing in its own line of electric vehicles, but Reuters is out with more evidence that Project Titan is underway: The tech giant has reportedly been in talks with charging station companies and has hired at least four electric vehicle charging specialists.
Apple has been asking charging station companies about their underlying technology, Reuters reports, for reasons other than providing charging stations for its own employees (which the company already does).
Speculation about Apple's electric vehicle project, dubbed Titan, has gone on for months, with reports indicating the company is aiming to ship its first fleet by 2019.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Apple has registered a handful of car-related domains. In a more concrete illustration of Apple's interest in the auto industry, the company recently announced it's invested $1 billion in China's cab-hailing service Didi Chuxing.
For a company like Apple, known for controlling the whole hardware and software ecosystem around its products, investing in charging stations as part of its electric vehicle project would make sense.
Moreover, as Reuters pointed out, it would fulfill a clear need: California currently has around 8,000 work and public chargers but will need somewhere between 13 to 25 times more by 2020, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Reuterの元記事はこちら。
