TSLA Tesla Inc

By Greg Bensinger 

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Tesla Motors Inc. chief Elon Musk said he considers Apple Inc. an eventual direct competitor, with electric vehicles could go into production as soon as 2020.

Apple will "probably make a good car and be successful," Mr. Musk said at the Code Conference here Wednesday. "They should have embarked on [the car] project sooner."

The Wall Street Journal reported last fall that Apple was developing an electric car and had assigned it a 2019 "ship date," which can mean the time when engineers sign off on the project. 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.

Apple couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Mr. Musk said he expected to compete with traditional auto makers 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.

"I don't think any of the car companies have made a great electric vehicle, yet," he said.

Mr. Musk indicated he plans to hold an event later this year to discuss Tesla's plans in autonomous vehicles, but declined to offer specifics.

He repeated that Tesla has received about 400,000 preorders for its Model 3 vehicle, which is expected to start at $35,000. Mr. Musk expects to make half a million cars by 2018 and 1 million cars a year by 2020.

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

Mr. Musk is also the founder and chief executive of rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. He reiterated plans to send a rocket to Mars as soon as 2018 and a manned rocket to the red planet by as soon as 2024, with arrival by 2025. He said he would announce more details at a space conference in September.

He is also planning to relaunch one of the rockets that he successfully landed after takeoff within the next two months. Mr. Musk is trying to develop a rocket that can be reused because, he said, most of the cost of space travel are the rockets themselves. He said his rockets cost around $35 million each.

Mr. Musk, 44 years old, 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.

Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 02, 2016 02:45 ET (06:45 GMT)

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