He also predicted vehicles that could not drive themselves would become a “strange anachronism” before too long, reports The BBC.
The tech entrepreneur’s comments were made during an exclusive interview with the BBC at his design studio near Los Angeles.
Tesla vies with Nissan and BMW to be the world’s bestselling electric-car brand, but currently runs at a loss.
An added challenge is that over recent months several of its engineers have been hired by rivals, including China-backed Faraday Future and Apple.
Apple has not formally announced it is working on a vehicle, although it did recently register several automobile-related internet domains, including apple.car and apple.auto.
Mr Musk said it was “obvious” that the company would try to make a compelling car of its own.
“It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,” he said.
But he did not see the iPhone-maker as a threat.
“It will expand the industry,” he said.
“Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same helping other companies to make electric cars as well.”
