Elon Musk: Apple's Working On Electric Car

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
According to Elon Musk, Apple is definitely working on an electric car. Musk says he welcomes the competition and he thinks Apple "will expand the industry."

Tesla's owner, Elon Musk, has said it is an "open secret" that Apple is making a rival electric car. He also predicted vehicles that could not drive themselves would become a "strange anachronism" before too long. The tech entrepreneur's comments were made during an exclusive interview with the BBC at his design studio near Los Angeles. Tesla vies with Nissan and BMW to be the world's bestselling electric-car brand, but currently runs at a loss.
 
He's not wrong... say/think what you will about Apple (I personally won't use their products) but they do get traction and people looking at any area they enter. Which can be a good thing (well except when they are trying fix prices in ebooks).
 
"...But officer, when the car didn't signal the lane change and ran the red light it wasn't me! Siri was driving!"
 
This makes no sense.

Why would Apple - a high profile company in a ridiculously high margin market, enter a highly competitive industry, with extreme barriers to entry and very low profit margins where they will be just another player?

Have they simply run out of absolutely everything else to invest in?

The car industry is the absolute last place I would put my money, if I had a choice in the matter. It's fiercely competitive, relying on lots of legacy high tech engineering knowledge making it extremely difficult to break in to, and the return on investment is very very small...
 
Zarathustra[H];1042080221 said:
This makes no sense.

Why would Apple - a high profile company in a ridiculously high margin market, enter a highly competitive industry, with extreme barriers to entry and very low profit margins where they will be just another player?

Have they simply run out of absolutely everything else to invest in?

The car industry is the absolute last place I would put my money, if I had a choice in the matter. It's fiercely competitive, relying on lots of legacy high tech engineering knowledge making it extremely difficult to break in to, and the return on investment is very very small...
Click to expand...

From a company in Apple's position, it does make a good deal of sense. Tons of cash, top rated brand on an upward trend in what should be a big money maker. Though the timing might be a little off if gas prices stay like this. But this initially will be a car for the 1%.
 
I would guess after Apple started working on their car integration a crew years back, which is all the rage right now, Apple thought they could do everything, well, better than current car manufactures.

I could see Apple then evaluated electric, maybe driverless, cars and calculated they will be the next big thing. Apple has the financial resources to enter the market and stay relatively independent.

It's still a huge undertaking, but maybe they are basing themselves on Samsung which does a lot more than just phones and electronics. Apple also needs BIG sales to maintain their revenue, and electronics may no longer be enough by itself as an industry.
 
After the companies at CES coming out the way that did there will be a bit of competition.
 
Like other Apple products an Apple car won't be competitive with what's on the market but Apple is forced down that road to maintain relevancy and more importantly as a PR tool to keep AAPL market cap from tanking even further from 774B in early 2015 to now 551B.
 
He's not wrong. I mean Apple sheep’s tend to buy whatever Apple pumps out, and for the electric car industry that's a good thing. People will practically sell their homes just to buy the car, even if it means living inside the car. But other companies will probably jump in and start building their own electrics cars just to capture a piece of that market.

As for Elon Musk he doesn't care if Apple enters the market and surpasses Tesla in sales. Tesla will always be for the super car market where Apple will likely aim at markets that Toyota and Ford typically go for. In the end Apple will need batteries and the Tesla Gigafactory will likely supply them. Musk wins.
 
DukenukemX said:
As for Elon Musk he doesn't care if Apple enters the market and surpasses Tesla in sales. Tesla will always be for the super car market where Apple will likely aim at markets that Toyota and Ford typically go for. In the end Apple will need batteries and the Tesla Gigafactory will likely supply them. Musk wins.
Click to expand...

I can almost guarantee if they are building a car its going to be 40k+, probably mid 50k+. Also if Apple wants they can build a bigger factory than Tesla ever can, they have more capital than 99.9% of companies that are not banks. But I am pretty sure they will only do so if it makes sense for them.
 
Electric + autonomous
Sooner or later we will have electrics within cities only.
Apple provides a subscription service to use their luxury autonomous cars.

Like uber but with luxurious driverless cars. They already have the brand, the tech and the power to get legislations going.
 
I predict this will be like the Apple TV (not the box set, the actual TV).

Apple will realize that it is harder than they thought to compete in the automotive market, hype its long awaited car for a few years, launch a few gimmicks to work with cars, then drop the project.

Apples biggest weakness, they cannot compete in an existing market. They monopolized well on under served market segments like the smart phone market and MP3 market in the 2000's, but they have had underwhelming success in every segment that has existing and entrenched suppliers.

The automotive industry is a very crowded place, with large manufacturers that have existed for a long time and are very good at delivering product to the consumer. They also take a very dim view of new competition.

Tesla sells at a loss for every model, I don't think Apple has ever sold a product at a loss.

TL;DR, its apple click bait, trying to drum up interest in a company becoming more like Sony every day.
 
atrance5 said:
Like uber but with luxurious driverless cars. They already have the brand, the tech and the power to get legislations going.
Click to expand...
They don't have the brand. They have a premium brand in consumer electronics but in the automotive world, they're going up to brands that have define what it means to be rich and powerful.
 
///AMG said:
Also if Apple wants they can build a bigger factory than Tesla ever can, they have more capital than 99.9% of companies that are not banks. But I am pretty sure they will only do so if it makes sense for them.
Click to expand...

Apple didn't build a factory in china to make its phones, they won't build one to make cars either, they'll use whatever/whoever in china that can build the iCar.
 
Musk's comment is basically that since Apple is hiring automotive-related engineers, then they must be developing a car. Not sure I fully agree with that statement.
 
Interesting. Google, and now Apple are expanding into different fields. I wonder if Microsoft will also develop a car in the future.
 
Xrave said:
Musk's comment is basically that since Apple is hiring automotive-related engineers, then they must be developing a car. Not sure I fully agree with that statement.
Click to expand...

They are poaching people from him, so he knows the exact skillsets they are looking for. If you steal or try to steal one of his electric motor guys who is probably getting paid more than a guy designing electric fan motors for motherboards and/or his suspension guy or his high voltage charging guy, it becomes obvious.
 
DukenukemX said:
He's not wrong. I mean Apple sheep’s tend to buy whatever Apple pumps out, and for the electric car industry that's a good thing. People will practically sell their homes just to buy the car, even if it means living inside the car. But other companies will probably jump in and start building their own electrics cars just to capture a piece of that market.

As for Elon Musk he doesn't care if Apple enters the market and surpasses Tesla in sales. Tesla will always be for the super car market where Apple will likely aim at markets that Toyota and Ford typically go for. In the end Apple will need batteries and the Tesla Gigafactory will likely supply them. Musk wins.
Click to expand...

I know Elon of from my country and all but id take the porsche electric #German_Engineering
 
gxp500 said:
Apple didn't build a factory in china to make its phones, they won't build one to make cars either, they'll use whatever/whoever in china that can build the iCar.
Click to expand...

The problem there is anyone building that there is building low end. Low End is not Apple's style. High End would be too much of a departure and Apple would probably have to front the upgrade money.
 
It'll have proprietary connectors so you'll have to buy the Apple BRICK to charge it up. That'll be 699.99 extra for the BRICK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top