Volkswagen Group (VW) boss dismissed the possibility of merging the company with Tesla in the future. Now the company is even willing to compete to approach and even take over the largest electric car market from the company owned by Elon Musk.
This was revealed by Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess in an interview with CNBC ‘Squawk Box Europa’ program, quoted Wednesday (17/3/2021).
“No, we haven’t considered (the merger), we will go our own way. We want to approach them and overtake [Tesla],” said Herbert Diess.
“I think we can do that, we need our own software, our own technology. So no, there is no talk between Elon Musk and me about merging [the venture].”
A number of automative manufacturers are shifting their focus to electric vehicles. This goes hand in hand with increasing efforts to tackle air pollution generated by fossil fuels.
Several Countries Stop Production of Gasoline Cars and Vans
A number of countries have even announced plans to stop selling gasoline-fueled diesel cars and vans. One of them is Britain, which will start the plan in 2030. It is against this background that VW, and many other major automakers, want to compete and challenge Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Earlier this week, VW announced plans to set up six “gigafactories” in Europe by the end of this decade and upgrade charging infrastructure in Europe, North America and China.
The company, headquartered in Wolfsburg (Germany), will also focus on developing an electric “new integrated cell” battery that is slated to launch in 2023 and be used in up to 80% of VW’s electric vehicles by 2030.
Herbert Diess said the previous 15 years. The future will see electric cars leading vehicle sales and software being a key driver of the auto industry. He also predicted that self-driving cars will be rampant at that time.
“I think this is an open race, this is not an industry you can conquer in a few years or so, this is not technology,” he said.
“So you need a life cycle, you need a product, you need factory capacity, you need a market, you need to earn the trust of customers,” he added.
“So it’s a long term and there are some startups that we are closely monitoring and Tesla is definitely … leading in some aspects there. But we’re not too far behind and we’re getting momentum.”