Volkswagen set to overtake Tesla for EV sales in 2023
German car-making giant says it will beat US brand's sales by making make more than 1.5 million EVs annually in less than three yearsA senior Volkswagen Group exec has claimed sales of its new VW ID model family will overtake Tesla's total sales by 2023 or sooner, with the German car-maker on track to produce 900,000 to 1.5 million cars annually.
According to labour boss Bernd Osterloh, Volkswagen is already in position to overtake Tesla thanks to its heavy investment in its dedicated MEB architecture, which allows any of its brands to build a vast array of vehicles on the same platform.
Speaking to German newspaper,
, Osterloh said: "If Tesla sets up three factories where 300,000 to 500,000 cars can be produced, then we are talking about a number of units between 900,000 to 1.5 million. We want to achieve the same in 2023, probably even earlier."
It's not just in the sales department that Volkswagen will comprehensively beat Tesla, claims the bullish senior VW exec.
Osterloh also believes the German car-maker will also catch up with Tesla on the technological front, thanks to the advances already made by the Artemis engineering taskforce set-up by Audi CEO, Markus Duesmann.
Described as an engineering black-ops department, Artemis was devised to develop and encourage innovation within the VW Group without the red tape that stalls or slows pioneering new tech.
"Their advantage is that they already have their software in the cars and use it to collect data,” said Osterloh while referring to Tesla. “But if we get our system into our cars, we will have much more data within a short time.”
As well as thrashing Tesla for sales and tech, Volkswagen's labour boss says the car-maker's existing cost-cutting plans will help it overcome the sales slump caused by the global pandemic.
“At the moment we are not talking about less work," he said. "With the Golf we had the [production] levels of last year in June and July and introduced extra shifts. The four-day week is not an issue for us.”
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
