What you need to know
- Today was Tesla's earnings call.
- During the call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took two shots at Apple.
- Musk criticized the company for its use of cobalt and its infamous "walled garden."
Elon Musk just went out of his way to take a couple of shots at Apple.
As reported by CNBC, today was Tesla's conference call to go over their quarterly earnings. During the call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the time to take two direct shots at Apple.
One thing that Musk talked about was Apple's infamous "walled garden" that it is commonly criticized for. The CEO said that Tesla's approach was to be much more open with its technology.
"I think we do want to emphasize that our goal is to support the advent of sustainable energy," Musk said in response to a question about letting competitors use its charger network. "It is not to create a walled garden and use that to bludgeon our competitors which is used by some companies."Musk then faked a cough and said, "Apple."
Another shot came when Musk was asked about Tesla's supply chain. The CEO pointed out that, while Tesla uses a minimal amount of cobalt in its battery technology, Apple uses much more.
"Apple uses I think almost 100% cobalt in their batteries and cell phones and laptops, but Tesla uses no cobalt in the iron-phosphate packs, and almost none in the nickel-based chemistries," Musk said. "On on a weighted-average basis we might use 2% cobalt compared to say, Apple's 100% cobalt. Anyway, so it's just really not a factor."
The two companies are gearing up to be potential competitors in the electric car space. Apple is rumored to be ramping up work on Project Titan, its electric car project. The car, according to the general rumors, could see a release in the back half of the decade.
Musk has had an interesting relationship with Apple in the past. Most recently, the CEO claimed he had offered to sell Tesla to Apple years ago but that Tim Cook would not accept a meeting with him.
