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Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess May Have Been Offered Elon Musk's Position Once

Imagining Tesla Motors without Elon Musk at its helm is nearly impossible, and yet sooner or later, the current CEO is bound to step down from his position.
Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshot
Regardless of what his detractors think, it won't be because of one of his tweets or because the company will nose-dive toward bankruptcy, but simply because Elon Musk will want to. Actually, he already did, but every parent knows how difficult it is to find someone with whom you can comfortably entrust your baby.

A recent report from the German edition of Business Insider suggests Elon Musk did find that person back in 2015, only to be shunned in favor of Volkswagen. We're obviously talking about Herbert Diess, former CEO of BMW and current CEO of the Volkswagen Group and one of the most respected figures in the automotive industry.

The publication claims that Elon Musk swooped in during Diess's transition from the Bavarians to the Wolfsburg-based giant and tried to lure him to California instead. Apparently, the two had met while the latter was still in his position at BMW and struck some sort of friendship based on mutual admiration and respect.

If the report is to be believed, Elon Musk thought highly enough of Dr. Herbert Diess to offer him his position as Tesla Inc. (then Tesla Motors) CEO. "According to research by Business Insider, Diess had an employment contract from the Americans that was ready to be signed," says the article. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer any information on why the current Volkswagen Group CEO refused the alleged offer, though it's easy to imagine a few reasons.

Imagining where both Tesla and Volkswagen would be right now if the deal had gone through, on the other hand, is much more difficult. Since then, Tesla has become the most valuable automotive brand, and Volkswagen has successfully navigated through the Dieselgate scandal and became the legacy carmaker with the most convincing EV strategy. Things could have been worse for either of the two, but could they have been better too? Hard to tell, but now we can't get over the idea of a CEO swap. They should try it, if only for a month or two.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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