Volkswagen Group CEO, Herbert Diess has boldly stated in public that Volkswagen will probably overtake Tesla in the EV race, Automotive News Europe reports. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diess said: “It’s an open race. We are quite optimistic that we still can keep the pace with Tesla and also at some stage probably overtake.”
This comes after Tesla’s market value surpassed Volkswagen’s for the first time recently, despite selling a fraction of the cars Volkswagen produces and before recording an annual profit. To speed things up, Volkswagen is buying up software companies and ramping up investments in sustainable vehicles and battery cells, Diess said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Part of the urgency stems from Tesla’s plan to establish a manufacturing facility near Berlin, right in the heart of Germany’s automotive industry. The Berlin Gigafactory will be an all-encompassing facility that will build batteries, powertrains and vehicles, with the Model Y set to be first model to roll off the assembly line, which will be followed by the Model 3.
With that, Diess urged his top managers to speed up overhaul efforts to make the company more “agile,” or risk being pushed aside. “The company which adopts fastest and is most innovative but also which has enough scale in the new world will make the race,” he said. VW has already begun building its first mass-market EV, the ID.3 (which rivals the Tesla Model 3), in Germany.
Besides Tesla, Diess is also concerned about US tariffs on European automakers, after president Donald Trump stated that he’s still not happy with Europe during a dinner in Davos recently. “It’s very difficult to read president Trump, and we are doing what we can to avoid tariffs. 2020 for the auto industry will be a very difficult year, but we’re doing the right things to be competitive.”
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The world of automotive is advancing by investing in R&D for EV development. Every carmakers now have at least 1 EV, Hybrid or either PHEV. As the world is going towards Game-Changing EV, petrol and diesel cars are slowly being left behind. Not only that, this 2 automotive giants are doing an EV race to show which is more advance and competent. While the world is going towards EV and having an EV race, Proton are also developing their own EV but are using goverment’s money. Unfortunately, 5 years after Proton showcased their Game-Changing Iriz EV, Proton never sold it to the public. It’s 2020 already, confirmed already Iriz EV Game Over, 1 Billion Ringgit also Game Over going down to the drain, rakyat also Game Over
Don’t need to talk 3 talk 4 about other people. What you gamchanging Kenari Hybrid? Perodua have been promising us a gamechanging car since 2003 but until today I cannot see it. So where is their gamechanging Kenari Hybrid?
MAY. or MAY NOT.
Yess, and this is all thanks to our hardworking abang-abangs in Pekan. After all, VW bosses admitted our locals are more efficient than Germans in Wolfsburg. If VW overtakes Tesla this again means VW efficiency is higher than Tesla due to Tesla workers are all lazy, tidur, minum 8X a day. Tesla should learn from our abang-abangs in Pekan how to be efficient in producing cars even better than Germans could do.
And here in Malaysia we live in the year 3000. We have a flying car
We welcome this competition. Ec is the way to go as it involves less complicated mechanical parts. We hope there will not be cases of battery exploding like the famous Dsg issue in the ‘past’
Every EV producer claims to be Tesla killer. Till now haven’t seen a real credible competitor to Tesla in terms of units manufactured & sold.
All existing car makers sell many cars and big profits. Tesla is losing money big time. Other car makers what for want to lose money when he can make money?