Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk has confirmed that he met with Apple but he refused to disclose anything else.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Musk was pressed to admit that talks with Apple did occur, as reports about the secret meeting surfaced this week. However, the executive, seen by many as a visionary like late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, did not confirm if he sat down with Adrian Perica, who is responsible for Apple's acquisitions and mergers.
"If one or more companies had approached us last year about such things, there is no way we could really comment on that," he told Bloomberg. "We had conversations with Apple but I can't comment on whether those revolved around any kind of acquisition."
When pressed what if the right price offer comes, the Tesla CEO downplayed the possibilities.
"I think that's very unlikely. When you stay super focused on achieving a compelling...creating a compelling mass-market electric car, I'd be very concerned in any kind [of] acquisition scenario...that we'd become distracted from that task which has always been the driving goal of Tesla," explained Musk. "I don't currently see any scenario that would improve that probability. So that's why I think it's very unlikely."
News about the Tesla-Apple meeting surfaced earlier this week and though the possibility of acquisition is seen by many as very unlikely, Siri or other Apple products heading their way to the electric vehicles of Tesla, are seen as more realistic. Some also think that Apple has something to do with the largest battery factory in the world that Tesla plans to open soon together with some partners.
Tesla Motors reported its latest earnings Wednesday. The company disclosed that it sold 6,892 vehicles for the fourth quarter of 2013 to close the year with 22,477 units delivered to consumers. The numbers translate to $615.2 million for Q4 and more than $2 billion in sales.
"We expect to deliver over 35,000 Model S vehicles in 2014, representing a 55+% increase over 2013. Production is expected to increase from 600 cars/week presently to about 1,000 cars/week by end of the year as we expand our factory capacity and address supplier bottlenecks. Battery cell supply will continue to constrain our production in the first half of the year, but will improve significantly in the second half of 2014," the letter to shareholders read. "First quarter production is expected to be about 7,400 vehicles, which is significantly higher than the prior quarter production of 6,587 cars."
The Model S of the company sports a 17-inch touch infotainment display and whether Siri will find its way into that system will be a wait and watch game as both companies currently remain mum about their plans.
Shares of Tesla closed down 0.18 percent at $209.60 on Friday on the NASDAQ. Apple shares slipped 1.11 percent to close down at $525.25.
