Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk said he reached out to Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook “during the darkest days of the Model 3 program” to discuss the possibility of the iPhone maker acquiring Tesla for any tenth of their current value.
“He refused to accept meeting,” said Musk, CEO of Tesla, replying to some Twitter chain which cited a Reuters story on Apple seeking to produce a passenger vehicle by 2024 with a brand new battery technology.
During 2021 and 2021, Tesla struggled to increase volume production of the Model 3 sedan, with Musk at the time informing investors the organization was mired in “production hell” due to problems with automated production systems at its battery factory in Reno, Nevada.
However, Tesla overcame the problems and it has since racked up a string of quarterly profits. The electric automaker became one of the most valuable companies to join the S&P 500 when it became area of the widely followed stock index on Monday.
Shares of Tesla, however, ended 6.5% lower in its S&P 500 debut, amid news of potential competition from Apple.
Apple’s automotive efforts, referred to as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2021 if this first started to create its very own vehicle on your own.
Central to the company’s technique for auto production is really a new battery design that may “radically” reduce the price of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range.
In the same Twitter chain, Musk said “monocell,” which Apple intends to use within its design, “is electrochemically impossible as max voltage is ~100X too low” unless they are bonded together.
Apple declined to comment, while Tesla didn't immediately react to a Reuters request for comment.
