Elon Musk reportedly planned to sell Tesla to Apple, but that deal ultimately never happened. This is why Apple never acquired the company.
Musk approaches Tim Cook
You wouldn’t think it after all the recent discussions between Elon Musk and Apple over Twitter (or X), but Elon Musk was planning to sell Tesla to Apple. Years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk approached Tim Cook to discuss a deal to acquire the car company. That wasn’t surprising at the time, because things weren’t going well for Elon Musk’s company in 2020.
Also read: Apple vs Elon Musk: ‘Tesla will make its own phone’
That year, Tesla developed the Model 3, but the company had financial and technical problems. That is why Musk decided to approach Tim Cook to discuss a possible takeover of Tesla by Apple. This could have advantages for both companies: Apple is (still) developing the Apple Car and Tesla could use financial support. Yet that meeting never happened.
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
Apple Car still in development
According to a tweet from Musk, Tim Cook has refused the request. The two have therefore never met and a possible takeover of Tesla by Apple has never been discussed. In the years that followed, Musk has achieved enormous success with Tesla, so that the company is no longer in dire straits. A takeover now seems extremely unlikely, especially given the disagreement between Musk and Apple.
The question therefore remains what the Tesla takeover could have meant for the development of the Apple Car. This Apple project has been going on for years and there seems to be no end in sight. The development of Apple’s futuristic car is so difficult that the team behind the Apple Car was temporarily disbanded. With the help of Tesla, there might already have been an Apple Car.
Tesla does not support Apple CarPlay
That remains speculation, of course, but it is quite possible that the Tesla takeover had accelerated the development of the Apple Car. Now Tesla is one of the leading companies in selling (and developing) electric cars. There is little chance that Musk and Apple will continue to collaborate on the Apple Car, because Musk now sees it as one of Tesla’s biggest potential competitors.
Also read: Ford continues to support CarPlay – Tesla still refuses
This is one of the reasons why Tesla’s high-end cars do not support CarPlay, but have their own operating system. It does not appear that this will change any time soon, as Musk recently indicated that he would continue to refuse CarPlay. As a Tesla user you have to do without CarPlay, even after the release of CarPlay 2.0.
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