Is Apple the next A123?

[parabellum]

Yea, Apple is good convincing customers, selling shit for price of gold. They finally have a chance to do something useful with this talent.

I remember fellow employees commenting how irrelevant Apple was back when Microsoft 'rescued' it with a loan back in the 90's. Haters will hate.

There are positive aspects, I love their decision to base their systems on Unix platform. Microsoft failed in this one. Nothing personal. :wink:

 

[wb9k]

If you look at people's actual driving patterns, you'll see that NEV's are a large untapped market. I live in a 'city' of 21 sq, mi. that would be a bonanza for a 'smart-conveyance' that could be shared by a group of users. It would show up where and when I need it, drop me off at the 'front door' and then go dock itself until summoned by another in the group.

I see a market for something in between the typical car of today and the NEV/LSV as it exists today. Most cars are way overkill for what's needed, but NEV's are not quite enough to get around safely on most roads outside neighborhoods and parts of the big city. The system you describe sounds good, but unless the cars get a little faster, an enormous infrastructure of special lanes on our roads will be required to make it work.

 

[arkmundi]

Here's the top battery makers for 2014

http://ev-sales.blogspot.ca/2015/02/battery-makers-full-year-2014.html?m=1
Tesla's pick of Panasonic was well conceived. Its a once in a decade kind of thing - now partnered with Tesla for the gigawatt factory, doubtful they will be seeking other partners on the make side. Wanxiang is #11 (A123, now supply batteries for Zotye). So will Apple 1> go it alone, hiring talent and building a new battery factory from scratch, 2> pick a partner from one of the above, 3> partner with A123, or 4> other?

USA TODAY reported yesterday that Thilo Koslowski, vice president and automotive practice leader with tech advisors Gartner Inc. was on record stating that "Cars are the ultimate mobile device, and anyone that's in technology should get more serious about this space," noting that the automobile has ceased to be defined as a mechanical device and is now viewed "as a software and IT-designed machine that happens to have four wheels."