FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German Volkswagen is not worried about any Apple plans for a passenger vehicle that could include the iPhone maker’s battery technology, CEO Herbert Diess said.
Reuters reported in December that Apple may have made enough progress to build a mass-market vehicle by 2024, aided by cost-cutting in battery technology.
“The automotive industry is not a typical technology sector that you can take over at once,” Diess said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
“Apple will not be able to do that overnight,” he added.
Although Apple’s plans are not public, Diess said his intentions as such are ‘logical’ because the company has expertise in batteries, software and design, and that it has deep pockets to build on these skills.
“Yet we are not afraid,” he said.
Volkswagen plans to develop self-software necessary for autonomous cars to ensure it can compete with technology companies in the field of electric car data.
Reporting by Vera Eckert; Edited by Alexander Smith