In a piece on car company Magna International, Bloomberg has shared a tidbit about Apple's car development plans, suggesting there are approximately a dozen engineers from Magna working with Apple's car team in Sunnyvale.
Magna employees are said to be helping develop Apple's electric vehicle, reigniting rumors that Apple is working with a third-party to manufacture its vehicle rather than taking on vehicle development costs itself.
A completely new vehicle can cost several billion dollars, so leaning on the expertise of an industry veteran is a way of minimizing those costs. Apple has been quick to understand that: about a dozen Magna engineers have been working with the iPhone-maker's team in Sunnyvale to develop a vehicle, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
This isn't the first time we've heard rumors of some kind of partnership between Apple and Magna. In April, a German news site suggested Apple had a secret car lab in Germany and was planning to have subsidiary Magna Steyr manufacture its cars, and Apple executives also visited Magna Steyr in Austria in February of 2015. Apple also reportedly held talks with Daimler and BMW, but no deal was able to be established due to questions over who would lead the project and who would have ownership over data.
Magna executives and Apple both declined to comment on rumors of a partnership, but in a separate interview on plans to build a new car plant, Magna CEO Donald Walker spoke on partnerships like the one the company has established with BMW. Magna will be producing BMW's 5-Series and is said to be "positioning itself for the prospect that technology companies will eventually join its roster of customers."
"You could easily have enough business outsourced from the existing carmakers to fill up other contract assembly plants, or you could have new entrants that come in and say 'I really want to have something but do I really want to manufacture vehicles?,"' Magna Chief Executive Officer Donald Walker said in an interview at the company's headquarters in Aurora, Ontario.
While Apple has hundreds of employees working on its car project, the company's plans seem to be in flux. Following Bob Mansfield's takeover of the car initiative earlier this year, Apple is said to have laid off dozens of employees as part of a "reboot" that will see focus shifting towards the development of an autonomous vehicle system. Based on these recent rumors, it is no longer clear if a physical Apple-branded car will actually materialize or if the project will result in something more software oriented.
Since the iPhone X in 2017, all of Apple's highest-end iPhone models have featured either stainless steel or titanium frames, but it has now been rumored that this design decision will be coming to an end with the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year.
In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, the account Instant Digital said that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have an aluminum...
Apple is continuing to refine and update iOS 26, and beta three features smaller changes than we saw in beta 2, plus further tweaks to the Liquid Glass design. Apple is gearing up for the next phase of beta testing, and the company has promised that a public beta is set to come out in July.
Transparency
In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the...
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps.
Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico,...
Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive.
If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...
Apple is expanding the ability to add an Apple Account Card to the Wallet app to more countries, according to backend Apple Pay changes.
With iOS 15.5, Apple updated the Wallet app to allow users to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID.
If you receive an Apple gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that is also...
Three out of four iPhone 17 models will feature more RAM than the equivalent iPhone 16 models, according to a new leak that aligns with previous rumors.
The all-new iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max will each be equipped with 12GB of RAM, according to Fixed Focus Digital, an account with more than two million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The...
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year.
As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display
iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
The calendar has turned to July, meaning that 2025 is now more than half over. And while the summer months are often quiet for Apple, the company still has more than a dozen products coming later this year, according to rumors.
Below, we have outlined at least 15 new Apple products that are expected to launch later this year, along with key rumored features for each.
iPhone 17 Series
iPho...
I wish they spent 25% of that money on Macs instead of a low-profit, high-risk car business they have no reason to get into... Is it 4 years since last Mac Pro update?
We have been talking abou this car for a long time. I wonder if we will ever see it?
It's going to be Christmas eve for a long time, according to Tim Cook. I think I might have taken delivery of two Model 3's before Apple even shows their car for the first time.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.