#1 cleantech news, reviews, & analysis site in the world. Subscribe today. The future is now.


Cars

Published on February 9th, 2015 | by James Ayre

22

Tesla & Apple Escalating Poaching War — Apple Now Offering $250,000 Signing Bonuses + 60% Pay Increases

February 9th, 2015 by  

Originally published on EV Obsession.

The poaching wars between Tesla Motors and Apple appear likely to continue escalating into the foreseeable future, based on recent moves made by both companies.

Of particular note is the fact that Apple is apparently now offering signing bonuses as large as $250,000 and pay raises as high as 60% to Tesla engineers of interest to the company.

Substantial offerings. But apparently not enough to catch much, according to Tesla reps. Tesla on the other hand has to-date poached at least 150 former Apple employees — which is to say, they appear to be winning this war for talent. Well, appears to be is the key, as we don’t have official data on this.

tesla-bridge-beauty-1

Elon Musk has previously commented on this subject, as noted in a recent Bloomberg article, having stated: “Apple tries very hard to recruit from Tesla. But so far they’ve actually recruited very few people.”

That’s not to say that Musk doesn’t appear to have respect for the company, despite the disparity in success with regard to poaching from one another, having stated: “From a design philosophy, (Apple) is relatively closely aligned.”

That said, watching the industry these past few years, you can’t help but get the impression that Apple has mostly ossified “creatively” and is potentially going to enter a decline at some point in the relatively near future, while Tesla appears to be firmly on the ascent (though is certainly still something of a gamble in many ways).

Over the longer term, my bet would be on Tesla. How many iPhones can people possibly want?

h/t Tesla Motors Club

Image Credit: Tesla Motors




Tags: , , , , ,


About the Author

James Ayre’s background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.


Related Posts



  • Radical Ignorant

    Hmm…. Everyone here is talking about bonuses. This is not so important for people who get 250k on start. They will have what they need. The real difference for them will they do something meaningful or just sitting in office for money? Apple was long time ago presenting itself as a rebel against corporate world. As a different from all this business people. But what they can put on the plate against mission of “saving the world”, which Tesla took? Quite nothing except money. And after some threshold, when you can afford all you need and most of what you want, for most of people meaningfulness is far more important than more money to show how good they are.

  • RobMF

    So the question for me is this — is Apple looking to build an electric vehicle? If not, or if Tesla isn’t suddenly jumping into the cell phone market, there really isn’t much comparison between the two. That said, from my standpoint, Tesla gets points for being cool, doing what’s right, and taking huge risks to break necessary ground.

  • NRG4All

    I can see where Tesla could use some software and battery engineers, but I’m thinking that Apple wouldn’t need as much engineers (especially mechanical) from Tesla. Maybe this is just retaliation. If so, anyone who jumps may be richer but find the job not as interesting.

  • Bowd

    Apple is the largest company by capitalization. Tesla has only had a few profitable quarters. I think you are confused.

    • Jason hm

      Anyone think Apple is going to double, triple or quadruple their business within a decade? Growth>Profit

      • Bowd

        These cars are awesome. But from a pure investment standpoint, it’s purely speculative. There is going to be a lot of competition in the electric vehicle market.

        • Bob_Wallace

          I wouldn’t say “speculative” in that they are producing and have a track record. I would say “higher risk” than with a well diversified company that is producing mature products.

          Tesla does have all its eggs in one basket, but that’s standard for startups and new companies. Only after becoming very large do companies start buying into additional markets.

          Will GM or Toyota or Honda knock Tesla out? I wouldn’t bet on it. Tesla has a major head start and an incredibly strong product name for a very new company that has spent nothing on advertising and fluffing its image.

          Tesla is on its way to being a vertically integrated car company. It’s got a major jump on other manufacturers. Only Nissan has as much experience with EVs and Nissan doesn’t seem to be pushing hard for advancement.

          Tesla is only a couple of steps from an affordable, longer range EV. Get the battery factory going so that they have adequate battery supply and much lower battery cost. Design an attractive smaller, somewhat shorter range car than the S and they are there.

          I heard rumor that the battery factory is ahead of schedule.

          • Bowd

            Tesla is a well run company! I agree. From an INVESTMENT standpoint, it’s speculation. Speculation means that there is a high risk of loss. Most people generally believe that companies already currently making profits are safer bets than not. And Tesla sure isn’t making a profit yet. Hopefully, the Model 3 will work out and your bet will pay off in 2016.

          • Bob_Wallace

            I understand what speculative means in investment talk.

            My issue is with the “purely” part.

            Investment in company yet to produce a product would purely speculative IMO.

  • Shiggity

    Tesla freely gives it’s intellectual property away. Apple hordes intellectual property and has legal assaults going on every continent.

    One is inherently open, one is inherently closed.

    Intelligent people can see the difference.

    • Jason hm

      Tesla wins big if the electric auto industry adopts the 185650 cell as a standard..So their not really sacrificing anything..

  • Offgridman

    Mr Ayre,
    You need to do your research a little better. Analysts in the IT and financial systems see no problem with the future success of Apple. They will have no problem with continuing their sales to the high end market that want the cachet of the latest Apple product even if there are less expensive ones that work as well. Implementation of the Apple pay system is going to help keep those customers just like their proprietary app market.
    Now this is not to say that Tesla won’t be as equally successful, but we are talking about two totally different industries even if they need some similarly qualified employees.

  • Willy

    Um, they sold 70 million iPhones last quarter…

  • Jouni Valkonen

    The basic problem with Apple is that iOS operating system is severely outdated and Apple has gone into dead end with their mobile operating system.

    Apple should completely redisign iOS and do the design work primarily for iPad that uses external bluetooth keyboard. From this design background it would be easy to develop operating system version also for iPhone. Now Apple wants to pretend that people are actually satisfied when they are using iPad with an operating system that is designed for a cell phone.

    That is perhaps the reason why I got rid of my old iPad 4 and bought new Samsung Galaxy Tab S. At least Google is still improving their OS and I can hope that future updates are bringing better user experience.

    • maysider

      Apple is based on marketing, not on security or material quality.
      And people don’t mind, they are brainwashed, easily influenced.

      • Jouni Valkonen

        That is utterly untrue. Just two years ago iPad was the best tablet on markets. This is however no longer the case, but E. G. Samsung new Galaxy tab S is better.

  • Will E

    Tesla is no gamble.
    Tesla is building a renewable production chain.
    Giga factory powered by Solar and Wind, GM factory powered by coal and nuclear.
    A production chain certificate is needed for coal nuclear impact in the production chain, and recycle policy.

  • Shane 2

    Attractiveness of EVs will largely depend on advances in battery technology although the roll out of supercharging infrastructure will also play an important roll. The sky is the limit for Tesla, but it could fold if its bet on the Tesla 3 fails or if the large motor companies throw a lot of money into competing directly with Tesla. The chances of Tesla going bankrupt in the next ten years are much greater than the chances of Apple going bankrupt. Musk is toying with a radical look for the Tesla 3. That is dangerous territory for a mass market car.

    • tibi stibi

      true, but i think that the persons this is about have earned enough money already. so they like a bit of risk 🙂

    • Will E

      Tesla rules.
      carmakers must adapt to Tesla innovations. everybody wants a Tesla.
      for worldwide advertisement I d like to see Tesla
      bicycle team in the Tour de France, followed by Tesla EVs, in the Alps and Pyrenees.
      supercool

    • Radical Ignorant

      This is so wrong. They are not ev company! They are car company. They don’t compete with other evs. They compete with all cars. And they have very bright people on board. They will made compelling cars. Better than Fiat or Toyota, or VW… No matter how much evs there will be as long as there will be niche for good cars. Just cars, not in ev segment. That’s (about competing with evs) totally opposite to whole their missin, goal, philosophy.

    • maysider

      Bloody oil industry is trying to destroy Tesla every day. Like Apple is throwing dirt on Google Android every day through paid bloggers and “journalists”.

      And Apple employees are treated like slaves.

Back to Top ↑

© 2016   Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc.



Back to Top ↑