Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess will give a talk on “Motion”. Autos, Art, Architecture’, April 6, 2022, at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain, an exhibition exploring the similarities between the world of automobiles and art. (Vincent West / Reuters)
Frankfert — Volkswagen faces a difficult path to achieving its voluntary goal of becoming the world’s largest electric vehicle dealer by 2025, its CEO said on Monday, rival Tesla. Admitted that was stronger than expected.
“It’s going to be a tough race, but never give up,” Herbert Diess said at the FT Future of the Car 2022 conference. “I have to say that I didn’t think the major US competitors were so fast and ready,” he added.
Last year, Dís was strongly criticized for regularly benchmarking Volkswagen against Tesla and choosing the company’s agility and speed to put pressure on the established structure of German carmakers.
This year, Tesla opened its first European Giga Factory near Berlin, challenging not only Volkswagen but also the homes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Dís said he expects Tesla’s launch to be challenging.
Dís said he still sees Volkswagen’s potential to overtake Tesla to become the number one in the world by 2025, pointing out larger products that cover luxury cars, luxury cars and volume brands.
Looking at the US market, where Volkswagen aims to more than double its market share to 10%, Dís said it would require additional plants and local battery production. The move was due to overexposure to China.
Christoph Steitz
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