Volkswagen CEO calls for ‘revolution’ to deal with Tesla

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess informed workers on the German carmaker on Thursday to arrange for the “revolution” wanted to tackle electrical automobile pioneer Tesla and Chinese producers.

“In the new automotive world, we are faced with competition the likes of which Volkswagen has never seen before,” Diess mentioned in a speech on the carmaker’s flagship plant in Wolfsburg.

The German group—whose 12 manufacturers embody Audi, Porsche and Skoda—is pumping 35 billion euros ($40 billion) into the shift to electric vehicles and goals to turn out to be the world’s largest electrical carmaker by 2025.

With VW planning to cease producing automobiles with internal combustion engines in Europe for its eponymous flagship model as quickly as 2033, its services will must be retooled quickly.

Diess mentioned he was “worried” in regards to the Wolfsburg manufacturing facility, whose future has been the topic of a fierce debate throughout the group, highlighting the “impressive productivity” of the brand new Tesla facility exterior of Berlin the place manufacturing is anticipated to start within the subsequent few months.

Tesla plans to provide a automobile in 10 hours at its German plant, Diess mentioned, whereas Volkswagen’s foremost electrical automobile manufacturing facility in Zwickau requires “more than 30 hours”.

Diess, who triggered consternation throughout the firm final month when he evoked the potential lack of 30,000 jobs in Wolfsburg, mentioned: “Today is the right moment for the VW revolution.”

At the meeting, works council chairwoman Daniela Cavallo mentioned there was “not one person too many” on the Wolfsburg manufacturing facility.

“You regularly provide us with pretty photos from your travels, but not with semiconductors,” Cavallo mentioned, referring to current manufacturing stoppages attributable to shortages of the essential element.

The CEO’s deliberate “revolution for Wolfsburg” is the group’s “Trinity” challenge: a brand new battery-powered line to be manufactured from 2026 that can entail a significant restructuring on the central plant, which has but to start out producing an electrical mannequin.

“I want your children and grandchildren to have a secure job here in Wolfsburg in 2030,” Diess informed workers, calling on them to make Volkswagen “ready for the future”.

Works council chairwoman Cavallo in the meantime mentioned the manufacturing of one other electrical mannequin on the Wolfsburg plant “significantly before Trinity and 2026 is essential”.

Volkswagen’s executive board will current their “Vision 2030” for the Wolfsburg plant at a gathering of the supervisory board on December 9.

© 2021 AFP