The underside of an ID.3 electric car will be assembled at a Volkswagen factory in Dresden, Germany, on January 29, 2021.
Matthias Rietschel | photo alliance | Getty images
The Volkswagen Group CEO has rejected the idea that his company could join forces with Tesla, telling CNBC that the German auto giant wanted to go its own way.
In a conversation with “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday, Herbert Diess was asked whether he would rule out a future deal with Elon Musk’s electric carmaker in which VW could produce its cars, or whether the Tesla and VW brands would ever unite. .
“No, we have not considered that, we will go our separate ways,” he replied. “We want to get close and then overtake.”
“We think we can – we need our own software stack, our own technology,” he added. “And also, I think Tesla, or Elon, is very thinking … (about) its way forward. So no, there are no talks 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 trying to increase the number of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles on their roads in an effort to tackle air pollution and move away from the internal combustion engine.
For example, the UK has announced plans to stop selling new diesel and gasoline cars and vans from 2030. Meanwhile, the European Commission’s “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy” wants at least 30 million zero-emission cars to hit the road. by 2030.
Against this backdrop, VW and many other major automakers aim to compete with – and ultimately challenge – Elon Musk’s Tesla.
On Monday, VW announced plans to establish six “giga factories” in Europe by the end of the decade and ramp up charging infrastructure in Europe, North America and China.
On the battery side, the Wolfsburg-headquartered company will also focus on developing a “new unified cell” expected to be rolled out in 2023 and used in up to 80% of the group’s electric vehicles by 2030 .
In his interview with CNBC, Diess said that for the next 15 years, electric cars would lead the way and software would become the main driver of the automotive industry. He also predicted that cars would become autonomous within the same time frame.
“Managing this change is probably the most important task we face,” he explained. “And we think we’re on the way, we’re making good progress.”
Diess was also optimistic about the gap between what Tesla and European automakers are doing, and whether it can be bridged.
“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 planting capacity, you need market, you need to gain customer trust,” he added.
“So this is a long term and yes, there are a few startups that we keep a close eye on and Tesla is definitely … in some ways a leader. But we are not that far behind and we are gaining momentum.”