While Tesla apparently has to save a lot of money and is cutting more than three percent of its jobs, VW wants to seize the moment and push the US carmaker off the e-mobility throne. CEO Diess is already hoping for the changing of the guard in two years.
VW CEO Herbert Diess sees Europe's largest car group in the field of e-mobility soon on an equal footing with the industry leader Tesla. VW boss Herbert Diess believes he will soon be able to catch up with archrival Tesla, as he said at a works meeting in Wolfsburg. Elon Musk's company remains the biggest competitor - but you can see from the complexity of the new factories in Grünheide near Berlin or in Austin (USA), that not everything runs by itself there either. "Tesla is weakening," said the CEO. "We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly - we can take the lead in 2025."
Tesla boss Elon Musk recently described the factories in Grünheide and Austin as "gigantic money incinerators". The US company will cut up to 3.5 percent of its jobs in the coming months. About every tenth job among office workers should be eliminated, while the number of factory workers will increase in the long term.
Accordingly, according to Diess, VW wants to reduce the gap in the current year, which at least "must not get any bigger". Other e-models will soon follow from the German carmaker: From 2023, the ID.3 will also come to Wolfsburg, and in 2026 the Trinity will start on a new platform with homemade software. After renewed disagreement with the workforce representatives about possible savings plans for the VW headquarters, Diess now sees more unity: "I am particularly pleased that Daniela Cavallo and the works council are driving this transformation forward in such a close alliance in a competitive manner. It is necessary in order to keep Wolfsburg future-proof and secure long-term jobs. Wolfsburg can hold its own against Grünheide."
The topic of software remains difficult. There are said to be major delays in the expansion of the group's internal IT subsidiary Cariad - under the direction of the individual brands Audi and VW, the development of certain assistance systems is now supposed to run in parallel for a few more years. This again campaigned for understanding. It's a long-term project: "Nobody else dares to bundle all the software skills. It was clear from the start that there would be some challenges. But that doesn't mean that Cariad has failed."
Little worries This is the end of combustion engines in the EU. In essence, the group is already prepared for this. Such a step, which could refer to new registrations from 2035 and is currently causing controversy in the federal government, Volkswagen "does not have to worry," said the manager. "It can come - we are best prepared," said Diess. He referred to the electric models already on offer and those still planned, as well as the group's strategies for its own battery cell production and software.
The EU environment ministers wanted to vote on the future of combustion cars after the majority of the European Parliament voted in favor of ending sales of petrol and diesel engines by the middle of the next decade. While the German department head Steffi Lemke supports this, criticism comes from the FDP. The liberals want new cars with internal combustion engines to be registered later if they can be shown to be fueled only with climate-neutral synthetic fuels.
