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"The Natural State Of A Car Company Is Dead" Says Elon Musk As Apple Announces Its Decade Long Apple Car Project Has Been Cancelled

Apple recently cancelled its Apple car project, doing so with over $160 billion in cash. It may be true that the natural state of a car company is dead. Will Tesla be the only EV company in the U.S.?
"The Natural State Of A Car Company Is Dead" Says Elon Musk As Apple Announces Its Decade Long Apple Car Project Has Been Cancelled

Apple Car = Dead. All That's Left Is Basically Tesla

Apple tried to make an EV for 10 years, has a cash pile of $162 billion, and still ultimately came to the conclusion that it's too hard, and that margins would be too small—even at a $100k price.

Originally, Apple wanted it to be a fully autonomous vehicle, but they didn't have the vehicle fleet, real-world data, nor the experience to be able to accomplish that.

There are only two major American carmakers that haven't ever gone bankrupt: Tesla & Ford

These are words said by Sawyer Merritt via X, and it rings true about Apple, with its enormous cash pile, not being able to make a full electric and autonomous vehicle.

It all comes down to the real-world fleet data that a company has, and only Tesla has the data and an end-to-end neural network to process that data and create an autonomous AI EV.

Elon Musk's famous quote about making stuff goes like this:

"Prototypes are easy, volume production is hard, positive cash flow is excruciating."

Now, Apple could just buy Rivian for around $15/share at a $14.4 billion valuation, according to Gary Black on X, taking on Rivian's debt and risk as well, but I don't see Apple doing that. It's still too rich for Apple's blood and goes away from Apple's core competency.

It also gives Apple a company losing its cash pile quickly. Rivian cash on hand has gone from $18.1 billion in Q4 2021 to $7.9 billion in Q4 2023. That's a burn of about $11 billion in 2 years.

Still, Apple has a TON of money and could decide to do this anyway, but I think it's a very low chance.

You May Also Like: Democrats More Likely To Buy a Tesla Than a Republican - However, the Trend Is Shifting

Tesla May Be the Only EV Play

Unless Rivian can get to a profitable point and Lucid stops losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per vehicle, Tesla may be the only EV play for a while - possibly a long while in the U.S.

This creates a monopoly for Tesla, who will basically own the EV market and anything autonomous that comes along. This could lead to some antitrust lawsuits against Tesla, as they will be the only company at mass scale making EVs and autonomous vehicles. Government will try to break that up.

It shows that Tesla has done the impossible - with an impossible mission - to make a profitable car company. Elon Musk had to fight tooth and nail to make this happen and sleep on the factory floor with his workers. It was incredibly stressful.

Tesla has an open road to their next generation vehicle, lowering battery costs, improved performance and features in its EVs, and approaching level 4 autonomy.

It's Tesla's crown for the taking - full EV dominance in the U.S. and likely the world.

The biggest question now is - is there any chance Apple will buy Rivian (or Lucid)?

For Further Reading: The Cyber Odyssey: Tesla's Quest for Half a Million

What do you think about Apple cancelling its EV car project? Does this give Tesla an open runway for EV dominance?

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Hi! I'm Jeremy Noel Johnson, and I am a Tesla investor and supporter and own a 2022 Model 3 RWD EV and I don't have range anxiety :). I enjoy bringing you breaking Tesla news as well as anything about Tesla or other EV companies I can find, like Aptera. Other interests of mine are AI, Tesla Energy and the Tesla Bot! You can follow me on X.COM or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow my Tesla and EV news coverage.

Image Credit: Teslaconomics

Article Reference: Elon Musk

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