Elon Musk says he once tried to sell Tesla to Apple during the "darkest days of the Model 3 programme"
Tesla boss Elon Musk has revealed he once attempted to sell his electric car company to Apple. Mr Musk, 49, did not say exactly when he requested a meeting with the tech giant's chief executive but he described it as being "during the darkest days of the Model 3 programme". Tesla was struggling to meet
Elon Musk says he once tried to sell Tesla to Apple during the "darkest days of the Model 3 programme"
Tesla boss Elon Musk has revealed he once attempted to sell his electric car company to Apple.
Mr Musk, 49, did not say exactly when he requested a meeting with the tech giant’s chief executive but he described it as being “during the darkest days of the Model 3 programme”.
Tesla was struggling to meet vehicle production targets for the electric car – its first designed for the mass market – in 2017 and 2018.
At the time Mr Musk said the company was in “production hell”, blaming problems with automated production systems at its battery factory in Nevada.
In a tweet to his 41m followers, Mr Musk said had asked for a meeting with Apple boss Tim Cook “to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for one-tenth of our current value)”.
Mr Musk said: “He refused to take the meeting.”
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’s value, as at the close of trading on Tuesday, was $616bn (£458bn), so a tenth of this would be $61.6bn (£45.8bn).
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