The lower body of an ID.3 electric vehicle is assembled at a Volkswagen facility in Dresden, Germany, on January 29, 2021.
Matthias Rietschel | alliance image | Getty Images
The CEO of the Volkswagen Group has dismissed the idea that his company could join forces with Tesla, telling CNBC that the German car giant wanted to go its own way.
Speaking to Squawk Box Europe on Tuesday, Herbert Diess was asked if he would rule out any future deal with electric car maker Elon Musk, in which VW could manufacture its cars or if the Tesla and VW brands would may never.
“No, we didn’t think about it, we’re going our own way,” he replied. “We want to get closer and then move forward.”
“We believe we can: we need our own stack of software, our own technology,” he added. “And also, I think Tesla, or Elon, is thinking a lot (about) his way forward. So no, there are no conversations between Elon Musk and me about joining forces.”
The shift in focus towards 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 get away. of the internal combustion engine.
The UK, for example, has announced plans to stop selling new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2030. The European Commission’s “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy”, for its part , wants at least 30 million zero – emission vehicles on the road by 2030.
In this context, VW and many other major vehicle manufacturers want to compete with Elon Musk’s Tesla and ultimately challenge it.
On Monday, VW announced plans to establish six “giant factories” in Europe by the end of the decade and increase cargo infrastructure in Europe, North America and China.
As for the battery, the Wolfsburg-based company will also focus on developing a “new unified cell” that will be launched in 2023 and will use up to 80% of the group’s electric vehicles by 2030. .
In his interview with CNBC, Diess said the next 15 years would see electric cars at the forefront and that software would become the main engine of the auto industry. He also predicted that cars would become self-sufficient in the same time frame.
“Managing this change is probably the most important task we have,” he explained. “And we think we’re on track, we’re moving well.”
On the gap between what Tesla does and European carmakers and whether it can be overcome, Diess was also optimistic.
“I think so, because you know, the race is open – it’s not the industry you can conquer in a few years, that’s not technology,” he said.
“So you need life cycles, you need products, you need plant capabilities, you need market, you need to earn the trust of the customer,” he added.
“So that’s a long time and yes, there are some startups we’re watching closely and Tesla is sure to be … at the forefront in some respects. But we’re not so far behind and we’re gaining momentum.”