The Volkswagen group is preparing the overtaking against Tesla to become leader in the production of electric vehicles and software for their operation. He said this in an interview with a German newspaper the Chairman of the General Works Council, Bernd Osterloh: “If Tesla plans to build three factories and produce between 300,000 and 500,000 cars a year, we aim to produce between 900,000 and 1.5 million. We want to do it by 2023, but we could do it even sooner “.
A “Huge advantage” competitive, according to Osterloh, would derive from MEB modular platform, on which the Wolfsburg giant will be able to create models on tap that are also very different from each other by segment and size. The architecture can also be exploited by all the brands of the Volkswagnen group, which it would field a considerable firepower in the battle for leadership in the electric car sector. The German group also relies heavily on the task force Artemis: under the guidance of Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, the best engineers of the house of the four rings are working to bridge the technological gap earned by Tesla in recent years. One of the first moves to get Elon Musk’s carmaker to take its breath away was the establishment of a new software development department which regulate the operation of electric cars. The direction, in short, is drawn and Volkswagen is very clear what steps it will have to take in the future to score the overtaking against its rival from Palo Alto.
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In 2018, the Volkswagen group said it would allocate 44 billion euros until 2023 to create a range of fully electric vehicles. By 2025, the German giant expects 50 new models on tap, a very ambitious but not unattainable goal. However, there is no shortage of worries on the workers front. The production of electric cars requires less manual labor compared to that of traditional vehicles, which is why Volkswagen might think about reducing its workforce. The scenario of a work week of only four days for workers working in electric car factories initially assumed, however, it should not materialize, at least for the moment. “In July and August the Golf reached last year’s production levels, we even introduced extra shifts – Osterloh said -: the hypothesis of letting our workers stay at home one day does not exist “.
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