It wasn’t that long ago that Apple hired the former vice president of Porsche chassis development, Manfred Harrer, to help develop the on-again/off-again Apple Car set to begin production in 2025, but a recent article from Reuters has the European press speculating that a deal may be coming together that will see Porsche build the all-electric car for the Cupertino-based electronics company.
It’s not a crazy suggestion, either — consider that Porsche has turned its back on the Volkswagen/Audi corporate EV architecture in favor of building its own EV platform. Called the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture, Porsche has reportedly tried to convince higher-ups at corporate that top-shelf Audis and Bentleys should be built on the PPE, instead of the ID. platform (which is hardly a bad platform, in itself).
Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume, has a history with Harrer that could make things simpler for the two companies, and help bring economies of scale to the PPE that Porsche may not be able to reach on its own. If you’re looking for a high-end Apple Car to compete with the Model S and Lucid Air, you could do much worse than starting off with a Porsche Taycan.
What’s more, some knowledgeable people outside of Europe seem to be fanning the fire of a Porsche-Apple partnership, as well.
The Apple Car project team has been dissolved for some time. The reorganization within the next three to six months is necessary to achieve the goal of mass production by 2025.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 15, 2022
About the only thing we can say, for sure, about the proposed Porsche-Apple alliance is that it won’t be about developing infotainment software. “We already have Apple CarPlay. We will expand that,” Blume said without specifying details during a video conference on annual results. Still, Blume says that Porsche and Apple traditionally cooperate closely, and says the companies are, “on the same wavelength.”
We’ll see, soon enough, how true these rumors turn out to be – but it’s worth noting that Porsche’s parent company, Volkswagen, is believed to be toying with the idea of spinning off Porsche in a Tesla-style, all-electric IPO. Could a contract to build the Apple Car help build value in the standalone brand? Could they simply sell the whole thing to Apple, instead?
You guys are smarter than we are – scroll on down to the comments section at the bottom of the page and let us know how you read these tea leaves, and whether you think it will be Porsche or Apple would benefit more from a partnership. Enjoy!
Source | Images: Reuters, via Motorpasión; Porsche.
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