Apple is Reportedly Developing Its Own Electric Car for Production in 2024
Elon Musk says Tim Cook turned down a meeting for a potential Tesla acquisition.
Apple is now looking to produce its own electric cars by 2024.
According to a new report from Reuters, the American tech giant is in the process of developing self-driving cars utilizing the company’s own “breakthrough battery technology,” which can “radically” lower the cost of batteries while at the same time increasing the vehicle’s range. The project — known as Project Titan — was launched back in 2014, but its progress has been turbulent over the years, at one point shifting focus to software instead after reassessing its goals. In 2018, Apple veteran Doug Field returned from Tesla to oversee the project, and laid off a staggering 190 people from the team.
After the news surfaced, Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk chimed in on Twitter, revealing that he once tried to reach out to Tim Cook to discuss a possible acquisition by Apple of his automotive company for a price worth just 1/10th of Tesla’s current valuation. However, Cook refused to meet Musk. He also called into question the accuracy of Reuters‘ report — especially in regards to the “breakthrough battery technology” — saying that his own company has already been using iron-phosphate batteries in its vehicles, and that “monocell” designs are “electrochemically impossible.”
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
In other automotive news, there’s an officially licensed 1979 The A-Team van up for auction.
