Technology

Posted on May 25, 2016 by staff

Apple ‘in talks over electric car charging stations’

Technology

Apple seems to be dipping its toes into the electric car market after a report that they are in talks with charging station companies.

There have long been rumours that the Silicon Valley giant plans to enter the electric vehicle fray, with Apple remaining tight-lipped.

Reuters have reported that the firm have employed at least four engineers with specialist knowledge in the area.

The news agency also quoted sources which claimed Apple are discussing how to build charging stations with companies in that space – and said several LinkedIn profiles suggested they were interested in the infrastructure and software behind the technology.

Arun Banskota, president of NRG Energy’s charging business EVgo, said his company was “in discussions with every manufacturer of today and every potential manufacturer of tomorrow”.

Apple declined to comment.

It already provides charging stations for its employees to use, with the sources claiming the talks extended far beyond this.

There is a shortage of public charging stations and Apple is looking for its next big revenue-generator as the iPhone market seems to be peaking.

Electric car market leader Tesla has built more than 600 ‘Supercharger’ stations, which can charge an electric car in 30 minutes.