The body of an ID.3 electric vehicle is assembled at a Volkswagen plant in Dresden, Germany, on January 29, 2021.
Matthias Rietschel | image alliance | Getty Images
The CEO of the Volkswagen Group rejected the idea that his company could join forces with Tesla, telling CNBC that the German car giant is trying to go its own way.
Speaking at Squawk Box Europe on Tuesday, Herbert Diess was asked if he would rule out a future deal with Elon Musk’s electric carmaker, in which VW could produce its own cars, or if the Tesla and VW brands would ever merge.
“No, we didn’t think (that), we’re on our way,” he replied. “We want to get closer and then overtake.”
“We think we can – we need our own software suite, our own technology,” he added. “And I also think that Tesla, or Elon, is thinking a lot … (about) its way forward. So no, there’s no discussion between Elon Musk and me about joining forces.”
The shift in focus to electric vehicles comes at a time when authorities around the world are looking to increase the number of low- and zero-emission vehicles on their roads in an attempt to combat air pollution and move away from the internal combustion engine.
The UK, for example, has announced plans to stop the sale of new diesel and petrol (petrol) cars and vans by 2030. The European Commission’s “Sustainable and Intelligent Mobility Strategy”, meanwhile, wants at least 30 million zero-emission cars on the road by 2030.
In this context, VW and many other major automakers are looking to compete – and ultimately challenge – Elon Musk’s Tesla.
On Monday, VW announced plans to set up six “gigafactories” in Europe by the end of the decade and expand its charging infrastructure in Europe, North America and China.
As for the battery, the Wolfsburg-based company will also focus on developing a “new unified cell” to be launched in 2023 and used in up to 80% of the group’s electric vehicles by 2030.
In his interview with CNBC, Diess said that the next 15 years will see electric cars take over and software become the main engine of the automotive industry. He also predicted that the cars would become autonomous in the same amount of time.
“Managing this change is probably the most important task we face,” he said. “And we think we’re on track, we’re making good progress.”
As for the gap between what Tesla is doing and European carmakers and whether it can be eliminated, Diess was also optimistic.
“I think so, because you know, the race is open – this is not the industry you can conquer in a few years or so, this is not technology,” he said.
“So you need life cycles, you need products, you need plant capacity, you need a market, you need to gain the customer’s trust,” he added.
“So this is a long time and yes, there are some start-ups that we are following closely, and Tesla is definitely … leading in certain aspects. But we are not so far behind and we are winning. impulse “.