Tesla design chief takes shot at Apple, claims there's 'nothing to look forward to'

Tesla Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen recently criticized Apple, stating that the company's products are "just a slight refinement on the same thing."

In a recent interview with Spike's Car Radio, the Tesla executive took shots at Apple, insinuating that the company isn't breaking any ground with its product design.

"The sad part about Apple products now is like there's nothing to look forward to. I feel like it's just a continuation," Holzhausen said. "It's just a slight refinement on the same thing."

Additionally, Holzhausen said that "inspirationally, it's been hard to get super motivated by what they're doing."

The Tesla design chief did acknowledge that he wears an Apple Watch, but said he only does so "because of the fitness thing side to it."

"Otherwise I haven't really found much purpose to [the Apple Watch], other than the fitness part," he said.

Holzhausen joined Tesla in 2008 after stints at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen. During his time at Tesla, Holzhausen has been responsible for leading design on the Tesla Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck.

This isn't the first time that a Tesla executive has taken a pot-shot at Apple. Back in 2015, CEO Elon Musk called the Cupertino tech giant the "Tesla graveyard, stating that Apple is where former Tesla employees end up if they "don't make it."

Although Tesla and Apple aren't direct rivals, the latter company is known to be working on an all-electric "Apple Car" that could bring both companies into competition with each other. Some analysts believe that Apple could be Tesla's biggest threat if the "Apple Car" comes to fruition.

Apple and Tesla both regularly poach employees and engineers from each other. Most recently, Apple hired a Tesla engineer to work on its own secretive self-driving car project.