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 The recent spate of hires and patent filings reviewed by Reuters
shows that Apple is fast building its industrial lithium-ion battery
capabilities, adding to evidence the iPhone maker may be developing
a car.
Quiet, clean electric cars are viewed in Silicon Valley and
elsewhere as a promising technology for the future, but high costs
and "range anxiety", the concern that batteries will run out of
power and cannot be recharged quickly, remain obstacles. Those
challenges could also be seen as opportunities to find solutions to
take the technology mainstream.
The number of auto-related patents filed by Apple, Google Inc
<GOOGL.O>, Korea's Samsung <005930.KS>, electric carmaker Tesla
Motors Inc <TSLA.O> and ride-sharing startup Uber tripled from 2011
to 2014, according to an analysis by Thomson Reuters IP & Science of
public patent filings.
Apple has filed far fewer of these patents than rivals, perhaps
adding impetus to its recent hiring binge as it seeks to get up to
speed in battery technologies and other car-building related
expertise.
As of 18 months ago, Apple had filed for 290 such patents. By
contrast, Samsung, which has been providing electric vehicle
batteries for some years, had close to 900 filings involving auto
battery technology alone.
The U.S. government makes patent applications public only after 18
months, so the figures do not reflect any patents filed in 2014.
Earlier this month, battery maker A123 Systems sued Apple for
poaching five top engineers. A search of LinkedIn profiles indicates
Apple has hired at least another seven A123 employees and at least
18 employees from Tesla since 2012. [ID:nL1N0VT08B]
The former A123 employees have expertise primarily in battery cell
design, materials development and manufacturing engineering,
according to the LinkedIn profiles and an analysis of patent
applications.
A123, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012 but has since reorganized,
supplied batteries for Fisker Automotive’s now-discontinued hybrid
electric car.
"Looking at the people Apple is hiring from A123 and their
backgrounds, it is hard not to assume they’re working on an electric
car," said Tom Gage, Chief Executive of EV Grid and a longtime
expert in batteries and battery technology.
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Apple is building its own battery division, according to the A123
lawsuit. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit reflects how lines between the auto and tech are
blurring as Silicon Valley companies from Google to Tesla begin to
encroach on Detroit's turf, while automakers develop "connected"
vehicles that incorporate the latest applications and Internet
services.
So far, sales of pure electric cars in the U.S. and globally are
still a tiny slice of a market dominated by internal combustion
vehicles. However, Apple and other companies looking to develop
electric cars could see opportunity in government mandates and
incentives designed to boost sales of vehicles that do not emit
carbon dioxide.
Among those Apple hired from A123 is Mujeeb Ijaz, its former chief
technology officer who also worked at Ford Motor Co <F.N> for 16
years. Ijaz has filed for 17 patents during his career, many in the
battery sector, according to the Thomson Reuters IP & Science
analysis.
All told, the five engineers from A123 have filed for 23 patents --
some three times what Apple has alone, said Thomson Reuters IP &
Science. They generally specialize in battery cell and materials
design, and manufacturing engineering.
Ijaz was also sued by A123, which said he breached his agreement
with the battery maker by going to Apple and recruiting other A123
engineers.
(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Peter Henderson and
Christian Plumb)
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