As it firms up plans to upend the auto industry, Apple Inc. is looking toward British carmaker McLaren and San Francisco-based startup Lit Motors for help.
Both would give Apple some of the know-how needed to compete head to head against or forge a meaningful partnership with automakers. Yet the two companies exist on opposite ends of the spectrum: McLaren designs million-dollar race cars that mostly run on gas for its affluent customer base, while Lit Motors is developing an electric vehicle that looks like a mashup of a Smart Car and a motorcycle.
