Daimler, BMW end talks with Apple on electric car: Report

Daimler and BMW have reportedly ended talks with Apple over a cooperation deal on an electric car, which could have been named, unsurprisingly, “iCar.”

According to Handelsblatt , the US tech firm is looking for a partner that could lend it expertise in manufacturing an electric “iCar.” The favorite is believed to be Canadian-Austrian firm Magna. Apparently, talks with both German carmakers collapsed over the key questions of who would lead the project and, above all, which company would have ownership of the data.

Apple is primarily looking for German technology and specialists for the project, for which, the search is being conducted out of an office in Berlin. The company wants the car to closely integrate with its own cloud software.

(Also Read:  The electric car is the future; but for now it’s just Apple and Tesla battling it out )

A recent report  indicates that technology companies have increasingly set their eyes on the next technology wave. After mobile devices and wearables, it takes no prize for guessing that the next wave is indeed expected in cars. Apple has also hired former VP of Engineering at Tesla, and former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Chris Porritt. It is believed that Porritt will work on ‘special projects’ at Apple.

Project Titan  is a secret project at Apple that is widely believed to house efforts on the electric and potentially self-driven car project. Recently, Steve Zadesky, who has been leading Apple’s electric car project, was reported to have quit the company . Earlier this month, Tesla announced the Model 3, which has been priced at $35,000 and would also be available for pre-order in India. The Model 3 surprised the industry with pre-orders totalling $14 billion at last count.