Less than a fortnight after reports that Apple had laid off a large number of employees from it's Titan Automotive project, the Financial Times reports Apple has been linked with a £1.5bn (AUD$2.5bn) deal to buy McLaren Technology Group, the Formula One team owner and supercar maker, citing three unnamed sources.
Apple has been attempting to develop its own car for a while now with the car team said to boast upwards of 800 members before the recent layoffs took effect, so this would appear to be a huge change of direction.
As far as electric vehicle IP is concerned, McLaren have good form. Not only have they built and raced their own A123 based KERS system in Formula One since 2009, and manufactured the McLaren P1 hybrid hyper car since 2013 but McLaren are also the official powertrain (motor, gearbox & power electronics) supplier for Formula E. On the embedded electronics side they also supply a control ECU to several motorsport championships including Formula One and NASCAR.
So far both companies have denied the story but there are obvious similarities between this potential tie-up between Apple & McLaren and the route Tesla Motors followed to get it's first car into production, working with another Formula One team with a sports car business, Lotus.
Today, Chinese white-hat hackers identify a security vulnerability in Tesla Model S software, how the Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car could be connected to Lyft's self-driving car plans, and more details on Ford's electric-vehicle strategy. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla issued a software update this week after Chinese white-hat... 
Earlier this year, Ford announced that it would significantly expand its lineup of electrified vehicles—including mild hybrids with advanced start-stop systems, regular hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and perhaps a battery-electric model or two. By the end of 2019, Ford expects powertrains with some kind of electrification to be available in 40... 
When the BMW i3 went on sale in the U.S. back in May 2014, it marked not only the debut of the German automaker's first mass-market electric car, but also a new sub-brand. BMW originally planned to group all its electric cars under the "i" sub-brand, which currently includes all-electric and range-extended REx versions of the i3, as well as the... 
With a 238-mile range and a $37,500 price before incentives, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV could be a game changer for electric cars. But what if that isn't its only mission? As the first 200-mile electric car offered anywhere in the world at a mass-market price, the Bolt EV could appeal to a broader range of consumers than previous models. DON'T... 
Modern cars' increased reliance on software to control vital functions opens up new technological possibilities, but also poses the potential of hacking. That risk now requires automakers to think like tech companies, and keep to updating software to close weak points that could allow hackers to access vehicle systems. Electric-car maker Tesla... 
Today, we have the official base price of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car, General Motors aims to take on BYD in the Chinese firm's home market, and Daimler's labor leader weighs in on the effect of electric cars on job numbers within the company. All this and more on Green Car Reports. As promised, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV starts at... 
A few weeks ago, we asked our Twitter followers how low electric-car prices would have to go for them to succeed in the market. The answers were revealing, because the sweet spot seemed to be around $25,000, the price chosen by half the respondents. Another quarter of the survey participants chose $30,000 (not so coincidentally, the effective... 
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler is pushing for more electric cars, and that has the company's labor leaders thinking about how such a shift might affect its workers. Electric motors and drivetrains require far fewer components than internal-combustion engines, meaning fewer workers are needed to assemble them. The technical knowledge needed to design... 
The term "range anxiety" is commonly associated with electric cars because of relatively short ranges for many of them, along with a lack of charging infrastructure in many regions. But at the moment, many drivers of gasoline cars in the southern U.S. may begin feeling exactly the same thing. A pipeline rupture in Alabama has led to fuel shortages... 
The automaker that sold the most plug-in electric cars last year wasn't a U.S., Japanese, or European firm. It was BYD, the Chinese carmaker notably backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. BYD sold just over 60,000 battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids last year, with the vast majority going to customers in its home country. DON'T MISS... 
It's been a year since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that Volkswagen used illegal "defeat device" software that allowed its diesel cars to cheat emissions tests. The VW diesel scandal may be just the beginning, though. Because while Volkswagen continues to negotiate with regulators and customers in the U.S., it seems that... 
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car will carry a price of $37,495 for the base LT trim level, including the mandatory destination charge, before incentives. The Bolt EV Premier model, which will include standard DC fast charging, starts at $40,905 before incentives. The Premier trim includes front and rear heated and leather-appointed seats, a... 
Of California's many incentives for green cars, one of the most popular is solo access to the state's carpool lanes for drivers of electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and certain other vehicles. But while California will distribute an unlimited number of "white stickers" for electric cars—as well as vehicles using hydrogen fuel cells and... 
When it debuted late in 2014 as a 2015 model, the Kia Soul EV boasted an impressive range for an electric car with a mainstream price. At an EPA-rated 93 miles, its range exceeded that of any electric car on sale at the time without a Tesla powertrain. But two years after its introduction, it appears the Soul EV is about to be surpassed by a new... 
All countries have to deal with emissions from diesel vehicles, but African nations have it worst than most. They often have few emissions regulations, something Swiss trading firms take advantage of by importing fuel that's too dirty for sale in other regions. These firms often serve as both producer and distributor for fuels in Africa, according...