Not surprisingly, the notoriously gruff Lutz was pretty dismissive, suggesting that Apple was standing on the brink of a “gigantic money pit”. His rationale?

Apple is used to making high-margin consumer goods, and cars are low-margin products. 

Electric cars make up a tiny portion of the auto market, so there’s not much money to be made anyway.

Batteries are among the biggest barriers to profitability on electric vehicles, and Apple has no expertise in that area.