Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ Poaching Killed Electric Vehicle Startup, CEO Claims

Apple’s Project Titan that is focused on technology for electric vehicles now appears to veering out to include electric motorcycles. The vehicle is thought to be an electric auto and is being worked on by a team of hundreds, including engineers who were hired from the likes of Ford and Mercedes-Benz.

Now, this strong-arm recruitment has resulted in a startup specialising in electric motorcycles having to close its doors for good due to losing all of its top talent to the iPhone-maker.

By last fall, Mission Motors reached a point of no return, the report says citing a people close to the firm. After the engineers left for Apple, the investors backed out and consequently more employees left.

San Francisco-based Mission Motorcycles, a maker of high-end electric motorcycles, recently filed for bankruptcy amid financial troubles.

The company, known for its sleek electric bikes that were often compared to Tesla’s cars, saw a number of engineers leave to begin work with Apple’s prospective efforts in the electric vehicle space.

Derek Kaufman, former chief executive of Mission Motors, said Apple knew what it was doing when it poached key staff. “Mission had a great group of engineers, specifically electric drive expertise…Apple knew that – they knew it, and they went and got it”. The company had developed its own system of battery pack and charging algorithms. All of these are electric vehicle key skills that Apple would likely not have had access to without hiring externally.

Tesla has also reportedly lost a number of its engineers to Apple, which company CEO Elon Musk has previously made light of.

Does this kind of aggressive employee poaching by Apple sound familiar? According to her, before one gets into Tesla, he or she has to know that the workers there really get wrung to the bone and underpaid.