Oliver Haslam·

Elon Musk Takes A Dig At Apple Over The App Store And Use Of Cobalt In Its Batteries

Yesterday saw Tesla announce its quarterly earnings with CEO Elon Musk involved in a call with investors and journalists. And while Musk should surely have been focusing on his own company, he couldn’t help himself — and he had to have a swipe at Apple over its App Store and the use of cobalt in its batteries.

According to a report by 9to5Mac and CNBC, Musk noted that Apple’s batteries use 100% cobalt, Tesla’s batteries use  considerably less; just 2%, according to Musk.

“Apple uses I think almost 100% cobalt in their batteries and cell phones and laptops, but Tesla uses no cobalt in the iron-phosphate packs, and almost none in the nickel-based chemistries,” Musk said. “On on a weighted-average basis we might use 2% cobalt compared to say, Apple’s 100% cobalt. Anyway, so it’s just really not a factor.”

Apple has been under fire for its use of cobalt before, with some accusing it of using companies that use child labor to mine it. Apple, for its part, has always said that its suppliers are audited by third parties and that any that fail those audits are removed from its supply chain.

Musk also took the opportunity to have a swing at Apple’s ‘walled garden‘ and the way it is perceived to treat developers.

“I think we want to emphasize that our goal is to support the advent of sustainable energy. It is not to create a walled garden and use that to bludgeon our competitors which is used by some companies.”

As if we were under any doubts that Musk was talking about Apple, he confirmed it by muttering “Apple” under his breath.

Classy.

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