LONDON — Apple Inc., ramping up efforts to disrupt the transportation industry, is seeking a stake in luxury carmaker McLaren and is in talks to buy Lit Motors, an electric motorbike startup, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The technology giant would more likely make a large investment in UK-based McLaren than buy it outright, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Apple wants to acquire Lit Motors because the San Francisco startup has several international self-driving patents, said another person. BMW, Audi, and a South Korean automaker are also actively pursuing a Lit deal, the person said.
Eager for a new hit to replace the iPhone, Apple has hundreds of engineers working on car design and has been targeting a release as soon as 2020. While the company has been focusing more on self-driving software in recent months, it has never abandoned efforts to build its own vehicle or tie up with an established carmaker, say people familiar with Apple’s thinking.
With sports cars starting at almost $200,000, McLaren would bring brand strength, advanced engineering, and a portfolio of patents.
The Financial Times earlier reported that Apple was considering buying all of McLaren or taking a stake in the UK-based carmaker.
In response, McLaren denied it was negotiating with Apple. “I can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple about any potential investment,’’ Michael Flewitt, chief executive of the automotive unit, said in a text.
Apple and Lit Motors declined to comment.
Earlier this year, chief executive Tim Cook suggested Apple would do more acquisitions and strategic investments. Apple had $232 billion in cash at the end of June — about $215 billion of which is kept outside of the United States, Cook said.
Many analysts have speculated that Apple would buy Tesla Motors Inc., deemed a good fit because it sells electric cars with self-driving capabilities.
Buying a stake in McLaren is less obvious because the UK company is best known for luxury cars that go very fast. Also, McLaren can make only a few thousand cars a year, compared with mainstream automakers with several factories each cranking out hundreds of thousands of autos each year.
Dominic O’Brien, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said acquiring McLaren would be a “strange move’’ for Apple. “They wouldn’t gain manufacturing scale or much know-how about mass-produced cars,’’ he said. “McLaren isn’t known for electric cars or its autonomous driving capability.’’
McLaren is more than 55 percent owned by Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co., the investment arm of the kingdom of Bahrain. The next two biggest shareholders are TAG Group Ltd., a Luxembourg-based holding company, with 11 percent, and McLaren chairman Ron Dennis, with 10 percent. Dennis also runs McLaren Racing.
