What Elon Musk has to say about Apple killing its car project

Billionaire entrepreneur and

Tesla

CEO

Elon Musk

has never been one to mince words. Yet, his reaction to

Apple

cancelling its electric

car project

is rather surprising. The Cupertino giant’s decision to abandon its ambitious decade-long effort to build an

electric vehicle

(EV) has become quite the talk of tech town.
Taking to his social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), Musk posted a cryptic response: a saluting emoji and an image of a cigarette. Musk did follow up with another tweet which was more of a quip on the

auto industry

.“The natural state of a car company is dead”, he wrote.
As the man behind Tesla, Musk is in a far better position than most to understand the complexities of car manufacturing, having disrupted the market with electric vehicles that blend innovation, performance, and sustainability. His assertion that cars are far more intricate than phones or smartwatches underscores the challenges Apple faced in venturing into this domain.
In a 2015 interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Musk playfully referred to Apple as a “Tesla graveyard.” His words were clear: If you don’t make it at Tesla, you end up at Apple. The rivalry between the two tech giants perhaps will go down as a case of one that had all the ingredients to be an epic one.

Apple’s pivot away from EVs comes at a time when global automakers are recalibrating their electric strategies. Demand for EVs has fluctuated, prompting companies like Ford and General Motors to adjust production targets. Meanwhile, Chinese upstart BYD has overtaken Tesla as the world’s top EV maker, signaling a competitive landscape in flux.
As Apple shifts its focus to generative artificial intelligence (AI), its ambitious car plans are perhaps on the back burner. Since Apple never really publicly commented on making a car, it’s not clear whether the company would revive the now defunct project.