Apple’s car project to be led by Bob Mansfield

Apple has reportedly enlisted the help of long-time Apple executive Bob Mansfield to lead its automobile project. This comes by way of the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

Bob Mansfield AppleMansfield stepped down from the Apple executive board in 2013, yet stayed around the company to work on, what Apple called, special projects. In this role he was reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. One of Mansfield’s projects turned out to be the Apple Watch. Now it seems he will head-up Apple’s car ambitions — a project Apple has yet to publicly confirm.

Apple announced in June 2012 that Mansfield, who joined the company in 1998, was planning to retire from his position as senior VP of hardware engineering. Mansfield changed his mind two months later, however, and stayed on at the company as its senior VP of technologies. At the time, it was reported that Mansfield had decided to stay after iOS software lead Scott Forstall left.

During Mansfield’s tenure he lead the engineering teams responsible for numerous products including the MacBook Air, iMac, and the iPad.

TechCrunch reached out to Apple, but the company was not available for immediate comment.

Update: Apple declined to comment on this report.