Elon Musk the CEO at Tesla (TSLA.O) addressed 200 Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) executives through a video call after being invited by the CEO of the German carmaker Volkswagen Herbert Diess. Diess plans on galvanizing VW’s top brass for a speedy switch to electric vehicles.
Diess tweeted on Saturday regarding the comments made by Musk to the managers at VW who had gathered in Alpbach, Austria. His tweets mentioned Musk praising VW for being an “icon” and Tesla’s greatest challenger.
While answering Diess’s question as to why Tesla has been more agile than its rivals, Musk credited his management style for it. He said that because he is an engineer, he has an eye for supply chains, logistics, and production.
Diess said in a post on LinkedIn that he decided to bring Musk as a surprise guest to emphasize that VW needed to take faster decisions and reduce bureaucracy if it wants to succeed in what he termed as the biggest transformation in the company’s history.
Diess wrote, “Happy to hear that even our strongest competitor thinks that we will succeed (in) the transition if we drive the transformation with full power”.
While acknowledging Tesla’s prowess, Diess said the American carmaker took all of two to three weeks to rewrite software enabling it to switch from one type of microchip, that had gone out of stock, to another.
Diess further tweeted that VW has emerged as one of the major rivals to Tesla in terms of global electric vehicle supremacy and that the German carmaker would continue its dialogue with Tesla.
He added, “We will visit you soon in Gruenheide.”
Earlier last month, Diess said Tesla’s plans of opening a car factory at Gruenheide near Berlin, will drive the local industry to elevate its game against the fast-growing U.S. electric vehicle maker.
Currently, Tesla is awaiting final approval for the opening of its factory on the 5.8 billion euro ($6.8 billion) German site.
On the other hand, VW, is planning to build six large battery factories in Europe by 2030 as part of an all-in bet on electric mobility.
