Apple Secretly Worked With China’s BYD on Long-Range EV Battery
- The effort had influence on batteries used in current BYD cars
- Apple scrapped plans to build its own vehicle this year
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Apple Inc. worked with Chinese automaker BYD Co. for years as part of its now-canceled car project, developing long-range batteries that helped lay the groundwork for technology used today, according to people familiar with the situation.
Apple and the Shenzhen-based company teamed up around 2017 to build a battery system using lithium iron phosphate cells, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort hasn’t been disclosed. The technology was designed to be longer-range and safer than typical electric-vehicle batteries at the time.