Photo: VW
The VW Group is facing an uphill battle as it marches towards its self-imposed target of becoming the world’s best-selling electric car manufacturer by 2025. This is something CEO Herbert Diess has already acknowledged, while also admitting that Tesla have proven to be stronger than expected.
“It will be a tight race, but we won’t give up on it,” said the VW Group boss just yesterday, at the FT Future of the Car 2022 conference. “I have to say we didn’t expect our main U.S. competitor to be so fast and well-prepared.”
Diess has already been criticized for benchmarking VW against Tesla, putting pressure on his company’s well-established structures to work even faster and accelerate growth. Meanwhile, Tesla has opened its first European Gigafactory near Berlin, a strategic move that isn’t going to sit well with Volkswagen, or its peers (BMW & Mercedes-Benz).
The VW CEO also said that he expects Tesla’s ramp-up to be challenging, which is why he still believes in his company’s chance that it can overtake the American brand and become the world’s no. 1 EV-maker by 2025 – spurred on by its bigger product offering (volume brands, premium cars and luxury segment).
In the United States, Volkswagen wants to more than double its market share to 10%, with Diess stating that such an achievement would require an additional plant as well as local battery production, as reported by Reuters. He then dismissed the idea that such a move was due to his company being over-exposed in China.
The Volkswagen Group is well represented in the U.S. with regards to battery electric models, through the likes of Audi, Porsche and the Volkswagen brand itself. The latter currently sells the ID.4 crossover (with the ID. Buzz coming in 2024), Porsche has the Taycan, Taycan Sport Turismo and Taycan Cross Turismo, while Audi is offering the e-tron, e-tron Sportback, e-tron GT, Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron.
Diess has already been criticized for benchmarking VW against Tesla, putting pressure on his company’s well-established structures to work even faster and accelerate growth. Meanwhile, Tesla has opened its first European Gigafactory near Berlin, a strategic move that isn’t going to sit well with Volkswagen, or its peers (BMW & Mercedes-Benz).
The VW CEO also said that he expects Tesla’s ramp-up to be challenging, which is why he still believes in his company’s chance that it can overtake the American brand and become the world’s no. 1 EV-maker by 2025 – spurred on by its bigger product offering (volume brands, premium cars and luxury segment).
In the United States, Volkswagen wants to more than double its market share to 10%, with Diess stating that such an achievement would require an additional plant as well as local battery production, as reported by Reuters. He then dismissed the idea that such a move was due to his company being over-exposed in China.
The Volkswagen Group is well represented in the U.S. with regards to battery electric models, through the likes of Audi, Porsche and the Volkswagen brand itself. The latter currently sells the ID.4 crossover (with the ID. Buzz coming in 2024), Porsche has the Taycan, Taycan Sport Turismo and Taycan Cross Turismo, while Audi is offering the e-tron, e-tron Sportback, e-tron GT, Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron.
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