Although it has by no means brazenly acknowledged it’s wanting into constructing an electrical vehicle, Apple has recruited dozens of auto specialists, many from vehicle makers like Ford or Mercedes-Benz, which shrugged off the departures.
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Mission Motors makes sleek electric bikes, which are similar to Tesla’s cars, and the startup was forced to cease operations in May after Apple poached a few of its top engineering talents, says the report citing sources close to Mission.
Mission Motors was working on high-performance electric motorcycles but just last month it laid out its plans for bankruptcy, it has been struggling with keeping employees onboard for the past few years.
While the news itself doesn’t change the outcome for Mission Motorcycles, it does shine a light on the challenges faced by other manufacturers which continue to ride on with their own models and the required effort to develop the needed technology to drive electric motorcycles forward. “Apple knew that – they wanted it, and they went and got it”.
Though, ex-CEO Derek Kaufman believes the company could have persisted, in case it hadn’t lost critical employees.
Kaufman said Apple’s recruiters began circling when Mission Motors was trying to raise investment from a funding round towards the end of 2014, and when Apple plucked staff away an investor committed to back the round bailed out.
Mission Motors never released an electric motorcycle for sale to consumers.
Scot Harden, a vice president at electric bike maker Zero Motorcycles, said his company has not suffered any defections to Apple thanks to a stable base of investors.
But Mission was perpetually on the verge of running out of money, people with knowledge of the matter said.
In 2010, the corporate started specializing in making software program and elements for electrical automobiles for different companies, hoping to generate income to help the motorbike venture.
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According to the recent story, this is where Mission Motorcycles may have come undone. Although it struck deals with Harley-Davidson and others, the contracts were not lucrative.
