Tesla CEO, Elon Musk Expect Apple To Become Tesla's Competitor by 2020

Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk expects Apple may soon become competitor to Tesla. He said Apple could bring its own electric vehicles into production as soon as 2020.

Apple will “probably make a good car and be successful,” Mr Musk said at Vox Media Inc.’s Code Conference here on Wednesday. “They should have embarked on the car project sooner.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on an electric car project and had assigned it a 2019 ship date, which can mean the time when engineers are expected to sign off on the project, not deliver a product. Apple hasn’t confirmed it is working on a car.

“It’s great Apple is doing this, and I hope it works out,” Mr Musk said to laughter in the audience. He said the market is big enough for multiple competitors.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Mr Musk’s remarks.

Mr Musk said he expected to compete with traditional automakers in electric vehicles, and added Alphabet Inc.’s Google wasn’t likely to make cars itself, in favor of licensing its technology to others. Google executives have said that is their strategy.

Mr Musk said he expected fully autonomous vehicles to be technically possible within two years, though regulators would likely take an additional year to approve broad use of such autos.

The 44-year-old entrepreneur said he hoped to die one day on Mars. “If you’re going to choose where to die, then Mars is not a bad choice,” he said.