During a so-called earnings call from Tesla, Elon Musk lashed out at Apple. The CEO denounced the closed system of the fruit brand, which he described as a ‘walled garden’, and criticized Apple’s use of cobalt. According to news channel CNBC.
When discussion arose during the call about plans to allow Tesla competitors also to access Tesla’s electric vehicle charging network, Musk noted that the company does not want to create a “walled garden” to thwart others, citing the strategy that Apple uses for its App Store: a mandatory commission for those who want to sell their software through the Store, knowing that this is the only (because official and safe) way to install apps on an iPhone or iPad.
“We want to emphasize that our (Tesla, ed.) main concern is to support the emergence and increase of renewable energy,” Musk said. “It’s not the intention to shield things as some other companies do.” After that, Elon Musk allegedly feigned to ‘cough’, saying, ‘Apple’.
When it came to the batteries of the Tesla cars, Musk again referred to Apple. The Tesla boss said people wrongly believe that his company “uses a lot of cobalt” in the production of the batteries but that Apple processes much more of that raw material. Cobalt is needed until further notice for lithium-ion batteries in electrical appliances. Still, about seventy percent of the mineral is mined in Congo, where corruption, exploitation and child labour are the order of the day. This casts a dark shadow over the green image producers of (including) electric cars like to appropriate.
Elon Musk did not hold back at the beginning of this week. “I think Apple uses one hundred percent cobalt in its batteries, telephones and computers, but Tesla does not use cobalt in its iron phosphate batteries, and hardly any in the nickel-based chemical compositions,” he argued. He also claimed that, if you count by weight, Tesla “may only be using two percent of the cobalt Apple needs. So, really, it doesn’t matter at all.
Tech site MacRumors clarifies that Apple does use cobalt in the production of its devices. However, the tech giant would keep a list of the companies that melt and process the stuff and regularly conduct an audit there. In 2020, all cobalt suppliers would even be audited.
The squabbles between Tesla and Apple are not new. Both companies have repeatedly accused each other of stealing staff from each other. Elon Musk recently stated that he once approached Apple to acquire the carmaker, but that Apple CEO Tim Cook “didn’t feel like” Musk. Meet.
Meanwhile, the American manufacturer of electric cars is doing good business. Tesla has seen revenues double in the past quarter compared to a year earlier. From March to the end of June, sales were $12 billion compared to $6 billion last year, when (due to the pandemic) the large Tesla factory in Fremont, California, was temporarily shut down.
Its quarterly profit came in at $1.1 billion, tenfold from the same period last year. It is the first time that the 1 billion marks have been crossed. The results were much higher than analysts had expected. Tesla also raised its expectations for the rest of the year.
It was previously known that Musk’s company produced and delivered more than 200,000 cars in the past quarter. Tesla boosted production to a new record despite chip shortages affecting the global auto sector. Tesla does not disclose where it sold its cars. The company has car factories in the United States and China and is working on a large factory near Berlin. The first cars should roll off the production line there this year, with considerable delay.