Now for the Apple car

Apple appears set to follow in the wheel tracks of search engine giant Google by producing an electric car of its own, according to US reports.

The Financial Times reported on Friday that the US tech company is hiring automotive technology and design experts for a top-secret research lab that could result in the first car from the iPhone maker.

Late on Friday, The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources as saying the world's largest smartphone manufacturer has several hundred employees working toward creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle.

TWSJ said the project, codenamed 'Titan', has an initial design of a vehicle that resembles a people-mover, which may or may not enter production.

At this stage it's unclear whether the project is an extension of Apple's CarPlay service, an in-car entertainment and software system that CEO Tim Cook last year said was pivotal to the company's long-term success.

Either way, many technologies developed for EV use — such as advanced batteries and in-car electronics — would be useful in developing and enhancing other Apple products, including the iPhone and iPad.

Like many tech companies, Apple routinely studies a range of new technologies and products by building multiple prototypes, many of which never reach production.

As Tesla and Google have discovered – the latter with its long-running autonomous vehicle project – developing an EV takes several years and requires regulatory certification from a range of federal and local bodies in regions in which they're sold.

Nevertheless, TWSJ says the car project was approved a year ago and that Apple's vice-president for product design Steve Zadesky – a former Ford engineer – is leading a team that also includes Johann Jungwirth, the former head of the research and development department at Mercedes-Benz North America and Marc Newson, an industrial designer involved with the 1999 Ford 021C concept car.

It also claims Apple has met with Magna Steyr, an Austrian-based contract car manufacturer that builds the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Peugeot RCZ and MINI Countryman and Paceman.