German Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess admitted in an interview on Thursday that Tesla is setting benchmarks for electric vehicles. Dyce praised Tesla led by Elon Musk and welcomed the possible future competition between the two companies.
Earlier this month, Musk, at the invitation of Dyce, delivered a speech to senior executives via video. Dess said: “I am very grateful for his appearance. I think we had a very good conversation.” Dyce added: “We must admit that Tesla is setting new benchmarks for electric vehicles. Not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of productivity and speed. But I think competition is always a good thing.”
Volkswagen is pursuing an electrification strategy, and its group headquarters is located in the German city of Wolfsburg. And Tesla is building a giant factory in Grünheide near Berlin, which is only a few hours drives from Volkswagen’s headquarters. Dess said: “I am very grateful for him to come to Germany. He will challenge us, but we will catch up as quickly as possible.”
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Dess made the above remarks after Volkswagen announced its third-quarter financial report. During the quarter, Volkswagen’s operating profit before special items fell by 12.1% to 2.8 billion euros (approximately US$3.25 billion). The German automaker said the cause was “supply problems.” The company said in a statement: “The global semiconductor bottleneck has a particularly large impact on the Volkswagen Group’s operating results in the third quarter.”
Moreover, the semiconductor shortage is not unique to the public. On Thursday, the Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) stated that UK car production in September fell 41.5% year-on-year. The agency said: “The suspension of production due to continued global semiconductor shortages and the loss of production capacity caused by the closure of a larger plant in the UK continue to hinder car production.”
Although overall car production has fallen, battery, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid models The production volume increased to 32.3% of total automobile production. As early as July, Volkswagen Group stated that by 2030, half of its cars sold will be battery electric vehicles. By 2040, almost 100% of new vehicles in its main market should be zero-emission vehicles.
A few months ago, Dys dismissed the idea that Volkswagen might join forces with Tesla and said that the company is seeking to go its own way. He was asked at the time whether to rule out the possibility of any future deals with Tesla, such as Volkswagen’s ability to produce cars for Tesla, or the merger of Tesla and Volkswagen brands.
In this regard, Dyce said: “We have not considered this possibility, we seek to go our own way. We want to get closer and then surpass Tesla. I think we can do it, we need our own software stack And technology. Moreover, I think Tesla and Musk are also thinking about their way forward. So there is no negotiation between Musk and me about joining forces.”
Volkswagen is one of several major automakers turning their attention to electric vehicles. In July of this year, Daimler, another German car company, stated that its Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz) brand would “be ready to achieve electrification of all models around 2030, subject to market conditions.”
