Why the heck would Apple business development execs meet with Tesla Motors?

“A few days ago rumors of Apple/Tesla meetings resurfaced, and conclusions were once again leapt to about a possible acquisition,” Chris Umiastowski writes for iMore.

“It’s unfortunate that most people writing about the topic seems to have nothing but mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on the brain. I think there is absolutely no chance that happening and what’s more — I think there are far more interesting possibilities to consider here,” Umiastowski writes. “There is a huge area of potential common interest, and that’s batteries.”

“If [Tesla] are to even reach 1% market share in the global car market they probably need to obtain lithium ion battery supplies that represent something like 10x today’s world production,” Umiastowski writes. “That brings us to cash. Apple has gobs of cash. Tesla … they’ve got nowhere nearly enough money to build several gigantic battery factories. ”

Read more in the full article here.

24 Comments

  1. Integration with iPhone, which is present on other manufacturers more years already (and will get expanded to iOS in the Car soon)?

    No other option since the meeting has happened in the May of last year. So “Apple buys Tesla” nonsense.

  2. Tesla is commited to Android. For every meeting Tesla has with Apple they likely have ten with Google execs. Google is the company that could and would buy Tesla. But Tesla ain’t for sale. Google, Amazon and PayPal are one tight group. Apple lost out to droid in Tesla cars. Lost out to Audi too.

    1. Meeting with Google does not automatically mean Android. Google had done quite a bit of work on a driverless car concept, and that could be something Tesla is interested in to differentiate itself from its competition.

    1. Did you forget the sarcasm tag?

      Batter tech has been improving a a stunning rate; from the early NiCad’s through NiMh and on to Li-ion and now LiPolmer. The cost, capacity lifetime and durability (physical, environmental & electrical) improved immensely.

    2. Power tech is not standing still. They are working on safer batteries and batteries that charge a LOT faster. And even things like carbon nanotube capacitor batteries. They may not yet be deployable yet, but I wouldn’t be shocked (pun intended) if there were more major advances in the next few years.

  3. Here are some possibilities of why Elon Musk met with Apple. 1) There is a touch screen interface in Tessla cars. Perhaps they want to put an Apple branded touch screen in their vehicles.

    2) Perhaps Elon Musk has developed something that isn’t yet public that Apple is considering buying. What? Haven’t a clue.

    3) Perhaps Apple is CEO shopping. Elon Musk would be a fascinating choice for CEO of Apple. It’s not entirely unreasonable. Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple and Pixar (before Disney bought it).

  4. These are two companies with many common interests, from batteries to technological integration, industrial design and automated manufacturing. They also both are big on pushing things forward and not holding on to outdated ideas.

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