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Apple Said to Be Working on Electric Car to

Challenge Tesla
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byAdam SatarianoTim Higgins

10:40 AM MAWT
February 14, 2015

Philip "Phil" Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple

Inc., said in 2012 court testimony that executives discussed building a car even

before it built the iPhone, which was released in 2007. Photographer: David
Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. is working on an electric vehicle, according to
people familiar with the matter, showing the consumer-electronics giant is
open to stepping outside its lucrative focus on mobile devices.
Apple has put a few hundred employees to work on the secretive project, said
one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is
private. Steve Zadesky, vice president of iPhone product design, is leading the
effort, the person said. Apple often tests ideas that dont get released, and the
effort work may not lead to the company introducing an automobile, the
person added.

The project is code-named Titan and the vehicle design resembles a minivan,
the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday. Some Apple executives have
flown to Austria to meet with contract manufacturers of high-end cars, the
report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Apple already has technology that may lend itself to an electric car and
expertise managing a vast supply chain. The company has long researched
battery technology for use in its iPhones, iPads and Macs. The mapping
system it debuted in 2012 can be used for navigation. Last year, Apple also
introduced CarPlay, a software system that integrates iTunes, mapping,
messaging and other applications for use by automakers.
Apple has batted around the idea of developing a car for years. Phil Schiller,
Apples senior vice president of marketing, said in 2012 court testimony that
executives discussed building a car even before it released the iPhone in 2007.
Mickey Drexler, an Apple board member and head of J Crew Group Inc., also
said in 2012 that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had wanted to build a car.
A representative of Apple, based in Cupertino, California, declined to
comment. The Financial Times reported earlier Friday that Apple is hiring
auto experts to work at a new research lab.

Tesla Connection
Other Silicon Valley companies are also creating cars. Google Inc. is working
on a self-driving vehicle. Tesla Motors Inc. makes electric cars and has hired at
least 150 former Apple employees, more than from any other company, even
carmakers.
From a design philosophy, [Apple] is relatively closely aligned, Elon Musk,
Teslas co-founder and chief executive officer, recently told Bloomberg
Businessweek in an interview.
Musk also said Apple has been trying to poach employees from his Palo Alto,
California-based company, offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent
salary increases.
Apple tries very hard to recruit from Tesla, he said. But so far theyve
actually recruited very few people.

Auto Experience

Apple has hired from the auto industry over the years. Zadesky joined Apple
16 years ago from Ford Motor Co., where he was an engineer for three years.
Apples chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, has worked at General Motors Co.
Over the past two years, Apple hired Haran Arasaratnam from Ford to work as
a battery engineer, according to Arasaratnams LinkedIn profile. Apple also
brought on Robert Gough in January to work on special projects. Hed spent
the past four years at auto supplier Autoliv working on projects including the
companys radar division and developing active safety sensor technology,
according to his LinkedIn profile.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco
atasatariano1@bloomberg.net; Tim Higgins in San Francisco
at thiggins21@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pui-Wing Tam
at ptam13@bloomberg.netJim McDonald

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What Apple Just Did in Solar Is a Really Big

Deal
Breaks records, slays trolls
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byTom Randall
7:36 PM MAWT
February 11, 2015
Apple Taps First Solar for Renewable Energy
It was a year ago this week that Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook
responded to a climate-change heckler at the company's annual shareholder
meeting with an impassioned rebuttal in which he famously told investors who
care only about profits to "get out of the stock."
Now Cook is putting his prodigious sums of money where his mouth is,
proclaiming the biggest, boldest and most ambitious project ever, an $850
million agreement to buy solar power from First Solar, the biggest U.S.
developer of solar farms. The deal will supply enough electricity to power all of
Apples California stores, offices, headquarters and a data center, Cook said
Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco.
Its the biggest-ever solar procurement deal for a company that isn't a utility,
and it nearly triples Apples stake in solar, according to an analysis by
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The investment amount is
enormous, said Michel Di Capua, head of North American research at BNEF.
This is a really big deal.

The blueprint
Cost: $850 million
Power: Apple will get 130 megawatts, enough to power 60,000
California homes
Location: First Solars California Flats Solar Project in Monterey
County
Contract duration: 25 years
Footprint: 2,900 acres (12 square kilometers)
Start date: Middle of this year

 Completion: End of 2016 (in time to take advantage of a 30 percent

U.S. tax credit)
Profitable? Yes, for both, although Apple and First Solar didnt
disclose the deal's full terms
The agreement positions the CEO of the worlds biggest company at the center
of the global debate about climate change and the future of energya role
Cook has increasingly embraced over the past two years. The company has
been ramping up its investment in solar, with two 20 Mw plants completed
and a third under development in North Carolina, and a 20 Mw plant in
development in Reno, Nev. All of Apple's data centers are now powered by
renewables.
We know that climate change is real, Cook said on Tuesday. Our view is
that the time for talk has passed, and the time for action is now. Weve shown
that with what weve done.
Wind power has long been cheaper than solar, and such tech companies
as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have taken advantage by investing heavily
in wind.
But the sun is the future. The price of solar has been declining quicker than
that of wind, and by 2050 solar could be the world's biggest single source of
electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. The Apple deal is the
first of its size for solar, a milestone on the road to cheap, unsubsidized power
from the sun.

Electricity Prices for Similar Deals ($/Mwh)

Prices spiked in 2009-2010 as states rushed to meet RPS goals.

BNEF
Apple isn't investing in solar as a gift to humanity. It's doing it because it's a
good business deal, Cook stressed at the Goldman Sachs conference. "We
expect to have very significant savings," he said.
As if to underline that fact, within minutes of announcing the solar deal,
Apple's stock ended the trading day with a record valuation of $711 billion,
making it the first U.S. company to cross the $700 billion mark. Shares of both
Apple and First Solar surged.

Follow the Leaders

Google: Last year Google signed a 400 Mw power-purchase deal in
wind, bringing its total to 1 gigawatt.

 Microsoft: In the past two years, Microsoft has entered into deals for
285 Mw of wind, including one of the world's biggest contracts for a
single facility.
Amazon: Just last month, Amazon jumped into the race, signing a 150
Mw wind agreement.
Ikea: In September, Ikea and a group of large companies committed to
becoming 100 percent renewable by 2020. The furniture retailer already
gets a significant amount of its power through company-owned wind
projects worldwide.
Wal-Mart: The big-box retailer has been busy putting panels on the
tops of its big boxes, with more than 100 Mw of capacity installed.
Read More: Seven Reasons Cheap Oil Can't Stop Renewables Now

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