Apple Is Being Sued By A Company That Makes Car Batteries After It Poached Their Top Employees

The rumours of Apple making a car have been flying around recently, and although we mocked them earlier this week, the evidence that this is actually happening appears to be mounting.

A123 Systems is suing Apple, after the iPhone-maker poached a number of its top employees to work on a new battery division. A123 is a battery manufacturer, and one of its specialities is the automotive industry. According to its site, it provides the battery in two hybrid BMWs, the Chevrolet Spark EV and Fisker Karma, as well as the starter battery on the McLaren 12C.

Reuters reports that the lawsuit claims “Apple is currently developing a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123,” although it does not explicitly state that this is automotive-related - A123 makes batteries for other applications, after all.

The reason this has tongues wagging is because Apple has also been poaching staff from Tesla, with more than 60 former employees now on Apple’s payroll:

A search of LinkedIn profiles turns up more than 60 former Tesla employees now employed by Apple, including dozens of hardware, software, manufacturing and supply chain engineers. There are also a variety of ex-Tesla recruiters, retail or sales specialists, attorneys and product managers. - Reuters

It’s still unclear whether Apple is making a car, let alone whether it’ll be an EV or autonomous vehicle. Either way, it’ll be interesting to watch this all play out.