Apple’s rumored electric car could hit the road by 2019

After a year of feasibility studies, the group within Apple in charge of the electric vehicle project has been given permission to triple its staff, which now employs 600 people, the Journal reported.

The company doesn’t now plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous, the newspaper said.

Can Apple deliver a viable product that meets the many regulatory requirements of modern motor vehicles as quickly as this report suggests?

Some sources within Apple expressed doubt as to whether the project team can meet its 2019 deadline, as this is Apple’s first vehicle and it’s not uncommon for complex projects to miss their ship dates.

Apple has hired Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen engineer with expertise in automated driving, and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research.

Now Apple is said to be moving forward with the plans, according to ‘people familiar with the matter, ‘ and will now be working with government officials in California.

If the company does enter the electric vehicle space it’s also going to have some serious competition.

So does this mean we should expect to see Apple Cars on the roads before the end of the decade?

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the report. Munster said he believes there’s a “50-60 percent probability” of an Apple auto becoming a reality.

It certainly does seem ambitious, but perhaps Apple does have a key manufacturing partner already lined up, and we just haven’t heard of who it is yet.

However, the Times notes automakers are concerned about the risk of how Apple and Google “would turn carmakers into mere hardware makers – and hog the profits”.