Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess unveiled Elon Musk as a surprise guest earlier this month at a meeting to inspire fellow executives. Now, he’s sending more praise towards Tesla in regards to the electric vehicle industry.
On Thursday, Diess said that Tesla “sets new benchmarks” for EVs, emphasizing that he welcomes the competition, according to CNBC.
While the two have remained close, Diess also added that Tesla’s presence in Germany may challenge Volkswagen, but that they’ll hope to keep up with the U.S. company.
In an interview with CNBC, Diess said, “I very much appreciate it that he showed up — I think we had a nice dialogue.” Diess continued, “And we have to accept that Tesla sets the new benchmarks [on] … the EV side. Not only technology-wise, but also when it comes to productivity, speed … I think it’s always good to have competition.”
Elon Musk ‘Changing the World With His Ventures’, Says VW CEO https://t.co/ONedTQclXD
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) September 7, 2021
Despite Tesla’s growth amidst an ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, other companies, including Volkswagen, were not so lucky.
In the third quarter, Volkswagen cited supply chain issues as the reason the company’s operating profit before special line items dropped 12.1 percent to just 2.8 billion euros ($3.25 billion USD).
Earlier this month, Diess alluded to 30,000 Volkswagen job losses in the transition to EVs, though fellow executives and employees were not totally clear on where the estimate came from.
