Apple Inc (AAPL)

[mick]

except/ The Apple iCar: Profit ????? aapl


Elon Musk made a lot of headlines when he said Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) would be as big as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in 10 years.

????? oh my/\

Apple is the company that's chasing Tesla.

That is, Apple hopes to have its own electric car on the market by 2020.

Apple tried to buy Tesla last year. And a future tie-up between the two companies can't be ruled out.

Bloomberg, Apple has been secretly working on a car for years.

J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler suggested Steve Jobs got the ball rolling before he passed.

“Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar,” he said. “It would have been probably 50% of the market. He never did design it.” Well, Apple has carried on, with Tim Cook green-lighting the iCar project last year.

Code-named “Project Titan,” the goal is to release an electric car in five years.

Apple on a collision course with other automakers — General Motors and Tesla — as well as its Silicon Valley rival, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Google has been working on an autonomous, self-driving car since 2010.

Meanwhile, Tesla and GM each aim to release an electric car that costs less than $40,000 and is capable of travelling more than 200 miles on a single charge.

Apple is right behind them.

San Francisco Chronicle broke the story last year, when it reported that Apple's head of M&A met with Elon Musk — something Musk himself confirmed to Bloomberg.

A conversations with Apple," Musk said. "can't comment whether those revolved around an acquisition."

Now the largest U.S. company ever, valued at $750 billion, Apple posted a record $18 billion profit last quarter. It generates $200 billion annual revenue and has $178 billion in cash just sitting around.

with no sale imminent, the company has been content to simply poach Tesla's employees. Musk says Apple has been offering his workers $250,000 signing bonuses and 60% salary increases to jump ship.

Apple's task even easier, when he gave away patents on Tesla technology last summer.

“Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology,”


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Charging Ahead

In addition to snagging Tesla employees, Apple has also been poaching workers from Massachusetts-based battery maker A123 Systems LLC.

Apple hired five people from A123, as well as other battery experts from LG Chem Ltd., Samsung Electronics, Panasonic Corp., Toshiba Corp., and Johnson Controls.

Indeed, the cornerstone of Apple's car will be the battery.

See, the problem with electric cars is that long-running batteries are incredibly expensive. Hence, the high cost of Tesla's current crop of automobiles. A Tesla Model S starts at about $61,000.

combat that cost, Tesla is building a huge new mega-factory, a “Gigafactory” out in Nevada.

Apple could go that route, but it would probably be better served by simply building a better battery — one that's more potent and less expensive.

If it can do that, it'll surpass its competitors.

If not, then it could hit a wall given the head start enjoyed by Tesla and other auto companies, which already have the infrastructure and manufacturing capacity in place.

Buy Apple? Tesla?

massive, $5 billion manufacturing plant that will build enough automotive-grade lithium-ion batteries for 500,000. Even if Tesla can't sell those cars, someone will buy the batteries.

additional/
Tesla, you might invest in graphite.

volume of Tesla's battery production will create a graphite shortage, opening huge profit opportunities for miners.

Two players include Graphite One (OTC: GPHOF, CVE: GPH) and Great Lakes Graphite (NYSE: GLK).

technology is huge for electric cars

pioneer in wireless electricity ?????