Apple has appointed former longtime executive Bob Mansfield, who last served as Senior Vice President of Technologies at the company, to oversee development of its widely rumored electric vehicle, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Apple announced that Mansfield was retiring in June 2012, but a few months later said he would remain with the company to “work on future products.” He last worked on Apple’s “Special Projects” team, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook, but it appears he was mostly absent from day-to-day work at Apple as of late.

Until recently, Mr. Mansfield—who, along with design chief Jony Ive, was one of the few executives to appear in Apple’s carefully-crafted product announcement videos—had all but retreated from the company aside from the occasional visit, these people said. Earlier this month, employees at Apple noticed in the company directory that all the senior managers on the car project were now reporting to Mr. Mansfield, they said.

Apple has reportedly recruited hundreds of engineers from the likes of Tesla, GM, and elsewhere to work on the so-called Apple Car, codenamed “Project Titan” internally. The electric vehicle could be street-ready between 2019 and 2021 according to various reports.

Steve Zadesky, who reportedly previously led Apple’s electric vehicle team, left the company earlier this year.

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Source: MAC ROUMORS