Speaking with the BBC, Elon Musk says he believes Apple is working on an electric car to rival Tesla, describing their efforts as an "open secret" and "obvious".
""It's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it."
Rumors of the Apple entering the electric car market date back almost a year after it was reported the tech company was hiring Tesla engineers. Musk later described Apple in October as the "Tesla Graveyard", and that they only hired ex-Tesla engineers that had been fired.
Despite their apparent efforts, Musk doesn't view Apple as a significant challenger. He says Apple's competition will only help to expand the electric car market overall.
"Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same helping other companies to make electric cars as well."
Tesla is primarily targeted toward the luxury car-market and currently runs at a loss. Musk admitted the company's future is relying on the more affordable Tesla Model 3, which is set to begin production in 2017.
Apple is yet to confirm whether it is working on an electric car, however the Wall Street Journal predicted a "ship date" of 2019.
Source: BBC News
24 Comments - Add comment