Apple Hires Former Porsche Chassis Vice President for Apple Car Project
Apple has been picking up car experts on an ongoing basis over the course of the last few years as development continues on the rumored Apple Car, and at the end of last year, the Cupertino company hired Manfred Harrer, a Porsche executive with expertise in chassis design.
According to Business Insider Deutschland (via 9to5Mac), Harrer was considered one of the best engineers in the Volkswagen Group, serving as the head of chassis development at Porsche prior to overseeing the Cayenne product line.
A former top Volkswagen manager told Business Insider that Mr. Harrer was a "hidden champion," and the "measure of all things in his field." Harrer worked for Volkswagen Group for more than 13 years before he left at the end of last year without telling his former colleagues where he was heading.
Harrer's LinkedIn profile still lists Porsche as an employer, and there was reportedly a waiting period before Harrer was able to begin working for a new company. Prior to working on chassis development at Porsche, Harrer worked for BMW and Audi.
Current rumors suggest that Apple is pursuing a full Apple-branded car, and right now, it looks like the company will be partnering up with Hyundai. Just this morning, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is likely to use Hyundai's E-GMP Battery Electric Platform for the Apple Car, with the future vehicle set to be marketed as a "very high-end" model.
Popular Stories
Following over three months of beta testing, iOS 18 was finally widely released to the public on Monday, September 16. The update is available in the Settings app under General → Software Update on the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have highlighted eight key new features included in iOS 18, and Apple shared a complete list of new features and changes last week. Note that Apple...
It's that time of year again. Apple is about to release iOS 18, which promises to bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and the company is expected to release it sometime today – Monday, September 16. Based on past releases, the update is likely to drop at around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern...
Apple will likely hold another event in October this year to announce new Macs and iPads. If so, it would be the fourth time in the last five years that Apple has held an event in October. Last year, Apple held a virtual event on Monday, October 30 to announce new MacBook Pro and iMac models with the M3 series of chips. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated...
Apple has seemingly leaked the rumored next-generation Mac mini with five USB-C ports, according to a code change within Apple software that was discovered today by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The code refers to an unreleased Mac mini model with an Apple silicon chip and five ports, which lines up with a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that said the next Mac mini will be ...
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max has been "lower than expected" since the devices became available to pre-order in the U.S. and dozens of other countries on Friday. Kuo said his data is based on a "supply chain survey" and shipping estimates listed on Apple's online store. Kuo estimated that sales of all four iPhone 16 models reached...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
