Elon Musk claims he once tried to sell his electric car company Tesla to Apple but the tech giant was not interested.
Responding to reports that Apple was aiming to start production of its own electric vehicle by 2024, Musk said he once tried to schedule a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook in order to make the sale.
"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)," Musk tweeted.
"He refused to take the meeting."
The Tesla founder also offered some counters to quotes from an Apple insider who called the company's electric car battery "next level" because of its monocell design and lithium iron phosphate chemistry.
"Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium range cars made in our Shanghai factory," Musk said.
"A monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is [around] 100X too low.
"Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?"
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
It's hard to know whether Musk was serious or just poking fun at Apple which has reportedly been working on its own electric vehicle, codenamed Titan, since 2014.
Despite years of development and testing, no official word has come out of Apple about Project Titan.
After a turbulent start to 2019, Tesla had an extraordinary 2020 which has seen the company's market value skyrocket to over US$600 billion – roughly ten times the market capitalisation of US car stalwart General Motors.
Remarkably, Tesla's success on the stock market has come despite it only selling 318,000 cars in the first three quarters of 2020 – a feat General Motors averages in less than two months.
