Ulrich Kranz has joined Apple, a former senior executive at BMW’s electric car division, to help lead its own vehicle efforts.
The technology giant hired Kranz in recent weeks, about a month after he stepped down as chief executive officer of Canoo, a developer of self-driving electric vehicles. Before co-founding Canoo, Kranz was senior vice president of the group that developed the i3 and i8 cars at BMW, where he worked for 30 years.
Kranz is one of Apple’s most significant automotive hires, a clear sign that the company is determined to build a self-driving electric car to rival Tesla.
Kranz will be working on a team lead by Doug Field, who led development of Tesla’s mass-market Model 3 and now runs Apple’s car project.
Apple is assembling a purple people eaters level line of defense to spearhead its car project with Kranz’s track record at BMW he may be a starting player to make Apple's vision a success…Questions should however be raised regarding Kranz’s departure from Canoo. Tony Aquila formerly a large investor in Canoo by all appearances seemed to push Kranz out of the CEO position and off the company’s board the question is why. Is there a greater story behind the departure and if that story is Kranz, how will it affect the development of Apple’s car?
Source: Bloomberg
