Apple Inc is talking to charging station companies, hiring engineers with expertise in the area and investigating how to charge electric cars, reported Reuters citing people familiar with the matter and a review of LinkedIn profiles.

Silicon Valley has been buzzing about Apple’s plan to build an electric car for more than a year now. The groundwork for the infrastructure and related software crucial to powering such a product seems to be conducted by the company now.

“Filling up” the batteries is a key shortcoming of electric vehicles and the moves show Apple responding to the shortcoming. Apple, whose simple designs have transformed consumer electronics, could transform shortage of public charging stations, and the hours wasted in charging a car into an opportunity for itself.

There was no comment from Apple to Reuters.  There were also no specific reports that Apple was building charging stations for electric cars, say Reuters.

However as the Silicon Valley icon looks for new sources of revenue amid a maturing market for its iPhone, automotive sources last year had said that Apple was studying a self-driving electric vehicle (EV).

One person with knowledge of the matter said that Apple is now asking charging station companies about their underlying technology. Apple already provides services to charge the electric vehicles of its employees and the talks do not concern charging for electric cars of Apple employees.

The person said that these talks indicate that Apple is focused on a car. Wary of sharing too much with a company they view as a potential rival, charging firms are treading carefully, the source told Reuters.

Whether Apple would design a system compatible with offerings from other market players or would want its own proprietary technology, such as Tesla Motors’ Supercharger network is still not clear.

Dealings with Apple typically require potential partners to sign non-disclosure agreements and hence several charging station suppliers contacted by Reuters declined to comment about any dealings with Apple.

His company was “in discussions with every manufacturer of today and every potential manufacturer of tomorrow,” said Arun Banskota, president of NRG Energy Inc’s electric vehicle charging business, EVgo, repeatedly even as he did not respond directly to questions about Apple.

Former BMW employee Rónán Ó Braonáin, who worked on integrating charging infrastructure into home energy systems as well as communication between EVs, BMW and utilities, is among the at least four electric vehicle charging specialists who have been hired by Apple, shows a LinkedIn review.

For example, Nan Liu, an engineer who researched a form of wireless charging for electric vehicles, was hired by Apple as recently as January. Apple had hired former Google charging expert Kurt Adelberger, Quartz had reported earlier this month.

Here are varying business models for the manufacture, installation and operation of electric vehicle charging stations. Infrastructure companies such as Black & Veatch and AECOM as well as General Electric, Siemens and Delta Electronics Inc and Car Charging Group Inc and privately held ChargePoint, SemaConnect and ClipperCreek are the major players in this space.

The three largest utilities in California also have plans to install charging stations.

(Adapted from Reuters)