Volkswagen is confident that it will overtake the success of manufacturers like Tesla and become the world’s foremost maker of electric cars in the next decade, according to chairman Herbert Diess.
The German company is working hard to bring a new range of electrified vehicles to market as it aims to rebrand and rejuvenate its image in the wake of the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal.
According to Diess, Volkswagen will have sold one million electric cars by 2025, putting it into direct competition with Tesla, which has pledged to build a million cars a year by 2020.
Diess told the Financial Times: “Anything Tesla can do, we can surpass. We are confident that in this new world we will become a market leader.”
As well as being much more established as a brand and a manufacturer, Volkswagen will have the advantage of scalable architecture technology like the ‘MQB’ platform which underpins many current VW Group cars.
That will allow Volkswagen to build more cars more quickly and for significantly less money than it would take to build vehicles like those made by Tesla.
However, the manufacturer’s chief financial officer has nonetheless said that Volkswagen can expect “substantial financial burdens” as it attempts to swap to its all-new electrified vehicle lineup.
Last year, Volkswagen Group chiefs announced a plan to cut €3.7bn in costs by 2020 by reducing staff numbers, streamlining productivity and paring back the number of models offered in its ranges.
Regardless, Diess expects that Volkswagen’s new electric cars will be an instant success, stating: “The entire electric fleet is to be profitable from the very beginning.”
