Apple appoints Automotive Executive Ulrich Kranz for its electric car Project named Titan

Apple has roped in a former BMW executive and co-founder of EV startup Canoo, Ulrich Kranz, for its electric car project. The technology giant hired Kranz in recent weeks after he stepped down as CEO of Canoo. Before co-founding Canoo, Kranz was senior vice president of the group that developed the i3 and i8 cars at BMW. He has served with BMW for 30 years. Reports suggest that Kranz will work under Doug Field. Doug Field joined Apple from Tesla. He runs the day-to-day operations of the “Project Titan” - the EV Car Project.

Before hiring Ulrich Kranz, Apple lost some key auto executives - Benjamin Lyon, Jaime Waydo and Dave Scott. They worked on engineering, safety systems and robotics, respectively, and left Apple in recent months.

Apple’s Project Titan

Project Titan for Apple began in the year 2014. Apple CEO Tim Cook in late 2014 assigned the project to Vice President Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer as Project-in-charge. When the project started in 2014, many considered it all to be a gimmick. Later, more and more appointments, some acquisitions and investments from Apple showed that Project titan was a reality. For the project, Apple also hired Johann Jungwirth, the former president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America.

At that time, around 5000 employees were working in the department to build a self0driving passenger vehicle. The Project aimed to revolutionise the automobile sector and who better than the tech giant with its resources – financial as well human. In 2016, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk stated that Apple will probably make a compelling electric car. He said, “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it.”

Read More: Tesla also had a Project Titan; but here's the difference!

This year though, in early December, Bloomberg reported that Apple AI lead John Giannandrea is overseeing Apple Car development as prior lead Bob Mansfield has retired. A few weeks later, Reuters reported that Apple was working towards a possible launch date of 2024.

Apple is keeping a tight lip on its plans for its automobile.

Read More: Does Apple have the tech to build self-driving passenger vehicles?