Volkswagen CEO ‘declared war’ on Elon Musk

On January 20 local time, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess called Elon Musk on Twitter, claiming he would steal Tesla’s market share. Some people see this as “fun” between two people who have always had a good relationship, but others claim that Volkswagen has declared war on Tesla in the electric car sector.

In his first tweet, Herbert Diess said that “I am here to take a share of your market share” (Volkswagen CEO did not use Twitter before), he also revealed the ID.3 and e-tron electric cars of Volkswagen won the first shipment in the European market.

What Herbert Diess said was true. In October last year, the first model ID.3 built on the MEB pure electric platform quickly achieved monthly sales of over 10,000 units and won the top spot in pure electric vehicle sales of Europe. The Tesla Model 3, which once occupied this position, fell directly out of the top 10.

It is worth noting that the starting price of Volkswagen ID.3 in Germany is only 36,000 euros, while the starting price of Tesla Model 3 is 44,000 euros. With quite a price gap and roughly comparable battery life, this means that in the electric vehicle market, Volkswagen is taking over Tesla’s market share.

Take Norway as an example, by 2020, sales of electric cars here account for 54% of total car sales, becoming the first country in the world to have annual sales of electric cars surpassing cars. traditional. Among them, Tesla’s market share plummeted from 31% in 2019 to 11% in 2020, and the Norwegian automaker currently has the largest share of electric vehicles, Volkswagen.

The reason is that European consumers have a natural preference for small cars, so the shape of the Volkswagen ID.3 hatchback suits them; On the one hand, it may be Tesla’s own problem, for example Tesla’s autonomous driving function is mainly developed based on the domestic market environment in the US, and inevitably difficult to adopt in Europe. In addition, Tesla’s manufacturing capacity is not keeping up, and difficult quality control can also affect consumer choice.

For future growth, Volkswagen also has ambitious plans, it plans to increase its annual electric car production to 3 million units by 2025. In 2018, they also announced plans to purchase battery cells. cost about 50 billion euros. Volkswagen wants to keep trying, and Europe is undoubtedly its biggest market. According to sales figures of EV Volumes plug-in market database, Europe is currently the largest market in the world in terms of sales and the proportion of new electric vehicles registered is twice as high as China, five times that of the US .

It is known that Herbert Diess announced in an internal video meeting last year that Volkswagen plans to use the world’s largest car factory in Wolfsburg, Germany to produce electric cars to compete with the “super Tesla’s factory is under construction near Berlin. He said the plant with an annual capacity of more than 800,000 vehicles will be upgraded with electric vehicle technology and operated with the latest software.

Tesla, on the other hand, was not prepared to give up on the European market, and was already playing a “series of combined punches”. During a conference meeting in the third quarter of last year, Musk said that while driving the Model X in Berlin, he had a lot of trouble finding parking, as American cars are often larger. Therefore, he said, Tesla is considering launching compact models in Europe to expand the market.

In addition, Elon Musk also said that Tesla will set up an R&D center in Germany to design new Tesla models here. This means that competition between Tesla and European car companies will continue to be fierce.

Outside of Europe, the Chinese market is also a part not to be overlooked. On January 19, FAW-Volkswagen held a press conference in Beijing. FAW-Volkswagen’s electric strategy pioneer model, the ID.4 CROZZ has officially opened for sale in advance.

The lowest prices of the four models after a comprehensive subsidy range from 199,000 yuan (25,235 euros) to 279,900 yuan (35,380 euros), essentially the same price as the standard battery life upgrade version of the Model 3 Tesla’s bestseller was 249,900 yuan (31,575 euros). In other words, both of these cars will go head to head in the market.

However, China Volkswagen Group CEO Feng Sihan stressed on January 20 that Volkswagen and Tesla are neither a product in a trench nor a competitor on the same front. Tesla’s audience in China, he believes, is the high-end consumer group, while Volkswagen’s brand positioning is to provide consumers with “affordable” and “quality” new energy vehicles. high”.