Apple is reportedly pushing for the development of electric cars by hiring experts from automotive company Tesla, according to the Guardian.
The tech giant also recently set up a research and development center in Germany, a mecca for manufacturing global luxury cars.
The news report said Apple recently hired Chris Porritt, a British car designer who worked as a vice president in Tesla's car engineering, reportedly for the company's electric vehicle project Titan, citing tech media Electrek.
Porritt is one of many Tesla engineers in Apple and the only one who moved to the tech company as a senior manager. When he left the automaker in September 2015, Tesla's chief executive Elon Musk described Apple as “Tesla Graveyard,” according to the Guardian.
At the time the chief said, "They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard’. If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”
The engineer worked on Tesla's flagship models Model S, 3, X and previously worked for Land Rover for a decade and Aston Martin for 16 years.
According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Faz), Apple separately has a team in Berlin, German apart from the engineering team in Cupertino. The team, which is comprised of 15 to 20 experts, is in charge of engineering, software, hardware and sales. According to FAZ, the experts came to Apple after they faced limitations working for automakers.
The news report also said, Apple would roll out cars around 2020 but that would not be autonomous vehicles as many expected.
