Electric Motorcycle Start-up Dies After Apple Poaches Engineers

Although it has never openly acknowledged it is looking into building an electric vehicle, Apple has recruited dozens of auto experts, many from vehicle makers like Ford or Mercedes-Benz, which shrugged off the departures.

Reuters reports that “about a half dozen” engineers switched from Mission Motors to Apple in just the previous year, the employees left at a critical time when Mission was trying to raise more money just to stay afloat, key engineering talent jumping ship wouldn’t really inspire confidence in potential investors.

“Mission had an awesome group of engineers, particularly electrical drive experience”, Kaufman stated. Apple (AAPL) knew that and finally got it, he said.

Former CEO of Mission Motors, Derek Kaufman, said that had the firm not lost its key employees, it would have carried on to raise funding.

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.

A123 Systems, an electric-car battery maker, sued NASDAQ:AAPL in February for employing few of its top engineers, and alleged that it had been compelled to halt key projects.

At least two Mission staff joined Apple in 2012, in accordance to LinkedIn profiles.

Another wrinkle surfaced around electric motorcycle manufacturer Mission Motorcycles running out of power.

Sherwood declined to remark. The company made headlines as it unveiled its prototype: an angular, modernist racing machine that hit 240 km per hour in tests, a record for electric bikes.

Apple’s Project Titan that is focused on technology for electric vehicles now appears to veering out to include electric motorcycles.

According to the recent story, this is where Mission Motorcycles may have come undone. Although it struck offers with Harley-Davidson and others, the contracts weren’t profitable.

They embrace Seth LaForge, an engineer on Google’s self-driving auto challenge, and Jon Wagner, Tesla’s director of battery engineering – a powerful tally for a corporation that by no means numbered greater than about 50 staff.