Volkswagen board chairman says it will overtake Tesla by 2025

Volkswagen (VW) plans to overtake Tesla by 2025 and will do so by striking when the iron is hot.

The ambitious statement was made by Herbert Diess, the current chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen Group, during a meeting at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.

‘Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin and Grünheide [in Germany]— and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength,’ he told workers on Tuesday, as first reported on by the Financial Times.

‘We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly — by 2025 we can be in the lead.’

Diess has had his sights set on Tesla for quite some time – earlier this year he said VW is capable of selling more electric vehicles than its rival by 2025.

According to Reuters, Diess said that the company is ‘earning more than ever’ and ramping up electric car production in its biggest markets – Germany and China.

VW sold 452,900 EVs worldwide in 2021, while Tesla sold 930,422.

VW is listed in fourth when it comes to electric car companies and fifth for the largest EV companies.

But Diess is not looking at sales numbers, he believes Tesla will dig itself into a hole as it ramps up production.

The ambitious statement was made by Herbert Diess (left), the current chairman of the board of management of VW Group, during a meeting at VW’s headquarters. Elon Musk (right) has said he is not bothered by competition. The two are friendly aside from the competition

Both of Tesla’s plants are struggling to find parts and accelerate production, the Financial Times reports.

Musk even said his new car factories are ‘losing billions of dollars’ due to supply chain woes and battery shortages.

‘This factory is losing insane money right now,’ he explained. ‘We should be operating a lot more cars from this factory versus a very puny amount of cars.’

‘Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin (pictured) and Grünheide [near Berlin] — and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength,’ Diess told workers on Tuesday

During the Tuesday presentation, Diess said that Tesla is weakening and then presented a slide with a meme that showed actor Jason Momoa representing VW creeping up behind fellow actor Henry Cavill cast as Tesla

‘Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. Okay? It’s really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire,’ he told members of a club of Silicon Valley Tesla owners in Austin in an interview published Wednesday.

Diess and Musk are friendly outside of the EV race, but the German executive continually notes Tesla as VW’s biggest rival.

During the Tuesday presentation, Diess said that Tesla is weakening and then presented a slide with a meme that showed actor Jason Momoa representing VW creeping up behind fellow actor Henry Cavill cast as Tesla.

Diess sees VW’s ramp up of its electric plant in Zwickau as its weapon against the powerhouse EV maker.

And now that VW’s plant is running at full capacity, it VW ‘will close the gap to Tesla and not let it grow even larger’ this year, predicted the chief executive. 

Musk, however, does not seem to be bothered  by the competition.

Speaking at a Bloomberg event on June 21, the billionaire said: ‘We don’t really think about other competitors.

‘The demand for our cars is extremely high and the wait-list is long . . . We are increasing production capacity as fast as humanly possible.’