Elon Musk certainly knows how to garner press attention.

When he's not hyping up Tesla products via Twitter, he's being rather blunt during interviews, and his latest talk with German newspaper Handelsblatt is a perfect example. The CEO recently made some remarks that made it seem like he's defensive and critical of Apple, though he later took to Twitter to expand on his frank thoughts.

Keep in mind several reports this year have claimed Apple and Tesla are in the middle of a poaching war, in which Apple is trying to snap up Tesla engineers to work on its secretive electrical vehicle (codenamed Project Titan). Musk has even confirmed that Apple is offering $250,000 bonuses and 60 per cent salary increases to Tesla engineers.

The Cupertino-based company has only managed to recruit a "few people" so far, he's previously said. Now, Musk is elaborating on that poaching war, saying Apple is only hiring engineers that Tesla has fired: “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple.”

When asked specifically what he thinks about Apple's car plans, Musk took the time to nitpick two of Apple's newest devices - the Apple Watch and iPad Pro - and its manufacturing process with Taiwanese contractor Foxconn:

"Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch? (laughs)," Musk reportedly said. "No, seriously: It's good that Apple is moving and investing in this direction. But cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches. You can't just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: Build me a car. But for Apple, the car is the next logical thing to finally offer a significant innovation. A new pencil or a bigger iPad alone were not relevant enough."

But don't think for one moment that Musk hates Apple. "Yo, I don't hate Apple," he has since tweeted, in response to his interview. "It's a great company with a lot of talented people. I love their products and I'm glad they're doing an EV."

In a follow-up tweet regarding the Apple Watch, Musk added, "Jony and his team created a beautiful design, but the functionality isn't compelling yet. By version 3, it will be."