FOLLOW US

Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday that he wanted to sell Tesla to Apple when the Model 3 program was in its "darkest days" but the tech giant's CEO Tim Cook refused to meet him.

Musk's tweet was in response to a Reuters report regarding Apple’s electric self-driving car aspirations and its new battery technology.

Apple is reportedly developing a breakthrough monocell battery design that will give its self-driving car an advantage over other electric vehicles (EVs).

According to the report, Apple's monocell battery design involves individual cells in the battery pack to free up space by eliminating pouches and modules inside the battery pack.  The design depends on lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry, which is less likely to overheat and safer.

However,  Musk thinks the Cupertino-based tech giant's battery design is "strange"  and "electrochemically impossible."

He tweeted, “Tesla is already using iron-phosphate batteries in its vehicles, and monocell design is electrochemically impossible because the battery can’t produce a high enough max voltage to be usable.

“Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?” The report also mentioned the possibility of Apple adding LiDAR sensors to the vehicle. If you’ve been following Musk for a while, you’ll also know he has called LiDAR a “fool’s errand.” Musk said.

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 2018, Musk decided to sell his company to Apple because the car business was hell and Tesla was a month away from bankruptcy while working on model 3.

During that year, Apple hired Tesla engineering chief Doug Field. The electric car manufacturer commented, “Tesla is the hard path. We have 100 times less money than Apple, so of course, they can afford to pay more. We are in extremely difficult battles against entrenched auto companies that make 100 times more cars than we did last year, so of course, this is very hard work.”

----------------------------------------

Have a story you want USA Herald to cover? Submit a tip here and if we think it's newsworthy, we'll follow up on it.

Want to contribute a story? We also accept article submissions – check out our writer's guidelines here.