Mysterious firm buys vehicle test site for the Apple Car (possibly)

The testing site is 5,458 acres large, located just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. For years, it has been rented by a mysterious company by the name of Route 14 Investment Partners LLC. Route 14 has so far kept its identity well hidden by having all of its external affairs managed by the Greenberg Traurig law office.

While the purchase took place just a couple of months ago (namely on June 25 of this year), Route 14 was incorporated in 2015, not long after Apple was discovered to be working on developing car technology. Since then, the company has been renting and using the space for years, although nobody knew exactly what went on within the vehicle testing grounds. 

The deed to the purchase was discovered by MacRumors, showing that the aforementioned company bought the whole lot for $125 million, which were paid in cash.

While Route 14's purchase has no direct connection with Apple on the sale deed—or anywhere on paper for that matter—the rumors have some relatively small but real basis on facts. For one, Apple owns a mail post box within the Corporation Trust Company (CTC), under which Route 14 also happened to be registered.

While this is the only concrete linking factor between Apple and Route 14, Apple's recent surge in action around its car project naturally brings all such rumors into the spotlight. If Apple is well on its way with its highly secretive car tech development, it would need a space of such capacity (and obscurity) to test its vehicles efficiently and in privacy.

On Thursday, Apple was also discovered to be in communication with Asian car tech suppliers, including Japan’s LG Electronics and South Korea’s SK Group. But even since before that, Apple is widely known to have already spoken with a slew of South Korean companies, among which are LG, SK, and Hanwha.

Only this Friday, Apple officially hired two engineers from Mercedes to work with its "Special Projects Group," which can only mean Apple's plans to break into the automobile industry are undeniably moving forward.

Despite potential issues due to global auto chip supply shortages (as well deficits of other components), Apple is allegedly setting is sights on 2024 as the year to launch the first original Apple Car.