Here’s the news you don’t expect. Elon Musk he did know of having tried to sell Tesla to Apple in the past so much so that he contacted Tim Cook to discuss it. However, Apple’s CEO didn’t consider this option as much to refuse to organize a meeting. All of this happened between 2017 and 2019, when Tesla was grappling with the enormous difficulties for the launch of the Model 3. A complex period that Musk himself defined as “the darkest of the Model 3 program”.
Those who have always followed the history of Tesla will remember very well the great difficulties that the American company had for its debut of its electric sedan. At that time, therefore, Musk tried to sell the company to Apple without succeeding. The offer was also “tempting” as the CEO of the American brand said he would sell the company for a tenth of its current value. Apple could therefore have bought Tesla for about 60 billion dollars (50 billion euros). A colossal operation but potentially within Cupertino’s reach.
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 then managed to overcome the crisis and is now in a very different situation. Curiously, rumors had been circulating for some time about a possible sale of the American manufacturer to Apple but only now does the confirmation arrive that those rumors had a grain of truth. But if Elon Musk really managed to sell his company to Apple what would Tesla be today?
Very difficult to say. Probably the American brand it would have evolved in a different direction and maybe some projects like the Cybertruck they would never be born. But these are just conjectures. Given the way things are going, it’s probably best that Musk failed to sell his company to Tim Cook.
However it is possible that in the not too distant future Tesla and Apple can come to confront each other on the same ground. As we reported yesterday, a Reuters report says the Cupertino company would be ready to launch its self-driving electric car as early as 2024: a project defined as innovative on the battery front. And on this very issue, Musk has expressed some doubts about the design of the accumulators that Apple is planning.
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