Auto industry analysts mocked and dismissed comments by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday, after he said in a new interview, “There’s a good chance that Ford doesn’t make it in the next recession."

The 47-year-old Silicon Valley billionaire, who has talked about sleeping under his desk and camping out at his Fremont, California, factory to make Tesla's electric-car production goals, also said the car business is "monumentally difficult."

Musk made his comments to Kara Swisher, a prominent tech journalist, during her "Recode Decode" podcast, which was released Friday.



While he praised America's oldest automaker for avoiding bankruptcy during the Great Recession a decade ago, Musk's forecast for Ford is grim.

A spokesman for Ford declined to comment, though the company in the past has made fun of Musk's production struggles. In July, when Musk tweeted about building 7,000 Teslas in a week, Steven Armstrong, chairman and CEO of Ford Europe, tweeted that it takes Ford four hours to build that many cars.

On Friday, analysts scoffed at Musk's new comments:

"Ford has been around for 115 years. It has made it through recessions and world wars. It is sitting on a ton of cash and pays a beefy dividend. Ford will make it through the next recession for sure," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Autotrader.

"Ford has already begun to batten down the hatches in expectation of a recession and plans to reallocate resources toward the future of electrification and autonomous driving. Surviving the next recession will be difficult for all companies. Ford made it through the last one and I expect them to make it through the next," said Ivan Drury, senior manager of industry analysis at Edmunds.

"Elon ought to peek at Ford’s balance sheet. It’s the Rock of Gibraltar. Besides, Ford has a history of driving into the ditch about once a decade, then come roaring back stronger than before," said John McElroy, host of Autoline.tv.

“Was he smoking pot during this interview also? I mean, it is hard to imagine where Elon Musk came up with that. If he wasn’t Elon Musk no one would even be aware someone said it. Large companies like Ford have tremendous staying power even in the worst of times. While Ford has its challenges to contend with, that would seem like a massive exaggeration," said market economist Jon Gabrielsen, referring to Musk apparently smoking marijuana during another podcast appearance this summer.

In addition to questioning the viability of Ford, Musk also referred to Apple as a company no longer known for "products that would blow people’s minds."

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Ford, (F) on the New York Stock Exchange, was founded in 1903. Apple (AAPL) was founded in 1976. And Tesla (TSLA) was founded in 2003. Tesla is the only company under federal investigation at this time, specifically by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for questionable projections related to Model 3 electric car production projections.

The SEC also settled a complaint against Musk for tweeting this summer about taking the company private, requiring that he step down as chairman and that both he and Tesla pay a $20-million penalty.

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: phoward@freepress.com or 313-222-6512. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid