VW boss is ambitious, but within reason.
According to popular opinion, Tesla has gained maverick status when discussing electric mobility, even though established carmakers had tried their hat at electric vehicles (EV) long before Tesla had been an idea. Electric mobility might have been around for a while before the upstart Californian company came about, but there’s little doubt that Tesla definitely moved EVs into the mainstream by putting its green credentials aside (to a degree) and setting out to make a car that you simply want. Couple that with Tesla’s bold tech claims and wide infrastructure, and it became unstoppable.
However, those who watch the motoring industry would observe that established carmakers tend to lag behind these ‘new-age’ ‘mobility technology’ companies because their years of experience has taught them to be more cautious when it comes to making bold claims. The difference in approach was shown when Tesla boss Elon Musk said in a teleconference that the company would forgo testing the Model 3 and instead put it straight into production, a move that would never fly with a traditional car company. And while that means rollout of Tesla’s most hotly-anticipated model will now come sooner, it also rides the risk of falling flat on its face not long after its first customer handovers.
What Tesla also lacks is the sort of rooted, time-tested, and verified abilities that traditional carmakers have amassed over the years (largely from trial and error in early years). That experience is precisely what German auto conglomerate Volkswagen Group does have, with the biggest carmaker in the world touted to be “the company to stop Tesla,” if VW boss Herbert Diess is to be believed.
Speaking to Autonews Europe, Diess claimed that the namesake for the conglomerate has “abilities that Tesla doesn't have today,” which puts it in prime position to stifle the onslaught that Tesla has managed in the electric vehicle market. In 2020, Volkswagen will begin sales of its first stand-alone fully-electric models under its ‘I.D’ electric mobility sub-brand, with the pioneering model to be based heavily on the ID Hatch concept that we saw some time back. The ‘Neo’ as its been dubbed, will be priced similarly to middling variants of its Golf hatchback, and will pack a range of as much as 600km on a single charge.
By 2023, the production version of the Crozz compact-SUV concept will go on sale, along with the Lounge SUV (think of it as Crozz AllSpace) for the American market. And to take on Tesla’s Model S, Volkswagen will release its Aero-E, which will compete directly with Tesla’s biggest saloon and will sport a design not too far from what we can see today in the Arteon. And somewhere in the mix will sit the ID Buzz, a modern interpretation of VW’s iconic ‘Microbus,’ which was recently green-lit for production.
Traditional car manufactures are moving increasingly toward electrification as regulation and legislation continue to tighten the noose around internal combustion cars, with more stringent requirements coming into effect in the coming years. These emissions requirements centre on both exhaust emissions as well as overall production emissions, with carmakers like Volvo going to relatively extreme lengths to meet demands (with the Swedish company phasing out non-electrified cars completely by 2019 and aiming to achieve carbon neutral production). And following news that the French government is aiming to eliminate non-EV vehicles by 2040, the demands are not empty threats.
Despite the moves being made by legislators and manufacturers, takeup of electric vehicles continues to disappoint. The Renault-Nissan Alliance, the biggest EV producer in the world, has yet to meet its sales targets for the alternatively-powered cars, while BMW has scaled back plans that it had for its “i” electrified sub-brand as a result of lacklustre response. Even Tesla has its issues, running through its cash reserves at record pace while delivery figures begin to level out. Profitability on electric mobility remains relatively low, due to the high cost of power-storage technology and the R&D resources required to make them usable.
We have little doubt that Volkswagen is likely going to be Tesla’s biggest headache in the future, with the auto-manufacturing behemoth able to call on the expertise of any of the 12 brands it has under its umbrella to move firmly into the future of electric mobility convincingly and successfully. And with the Group able to produce more cars in 2 days then Tesla did in 2016, there's little doubt that if the worlds' biggest carmaker wants to show the Californian EV upstart who's boss, it certainly can.
For more information on Volkswagen, check out our Showroom.
