On Monday, Reuters reported on Apple’s autonomous vehicle efforts, revealing the iPhone maker may launch an electric vehicle by 2024.
Now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded to the Reuters report, according to Tesla North. The story dropped on the first day Tesla traded in the S&P 500.
Musk responded to the Apple car details outlined in a tweet by ARK Invest’s Brett Winton.
“Strange, if true,” said Musk, adding, “Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium range cars made in our Shanghai factory.” Musk continued to say, “a monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is ~100X too low. Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?”.
Following up, Musk also revealed he offered up Tesla to Apple during the “darkest days” of the Model 3 program. He says Apple CEO Tim Cook “refused” to meet with him over a possible acquisition.
“During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.”
During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2020
Tesla’s current value is $605 billion as of Tuesday, so one-tenth of this would mean Musk was willing to sell the company to Apple for $60 billion at the time.
It’s unclear if Apple will be producing its own electric vehicle through a manufacturing partner, or just offer up an autonomous driving system to an existing automaker partner. Nevertheless, expect to pay heavily for any sort of Apple-branded vehicle.
