- Apple is scrapping its electric car project, per new reports, and Elon Musk has something to say.
- The Tesla chief posted a saluting face emoji before acknowledging the challenges of building cars.
- “The natural state of a car company is dead,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday.
Apple is killing its electric car project, and Elon Musk is here to deliver an eulogy.
The tech giant is pulling the plug on its decadelong electric car project, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. In response to the news, the Tesla CEO posted a saluting face and cigarette emoji in an X post on Tuesday.
“The natural state of a car company is dead,” Musk wrote in another post on Tuesday.
Many employees involved in the car project will now be moved to the company’s AI division, but there could be layoffs among Apple’s engineers and car designers, per Bloomberg.
The iPhone maker has been working on the electric car since 2014, but the vehicle’s development has been plagued by leadership changes and launch delays.
Musk, of course, is no stranger to the difficulties of producing an electric vehicle. The Tesla chief has battled funding shortages and production setbacks to get his cars made.
Even though Apple is a trillion-dollar tech behemoth, Musk said in 2015 that he wasn’t threatened by their interest in the electric car market.
“It’s good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction. But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches,” Musk told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “You can’t just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: ‘Build me a car.'”
Musk even jokingly referred to Apple as a “Tesla Graveyard” in the same interview.
“If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding,” Musk said to Handelsblatt.
Representatives for Apple and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
