Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess is impressed by the Tesla Model Y, he says in a comment on LinkedIn. According to him, the Tesla is in many aspects a frame of reference for Volkswagen, which is currently working hard to bring new EVs to the market.
Tesla was the manufacturer that accelerated the development and production of all-electric cars for established brands. Volkswagen’s top boss makes no secret that the American manufacturer’s products are still used as a frame of reference by its own brand. In a comment under the LinkedIn post with Elon Musk, the CEO says that he has also taken a test drive with the Model Y, Tesla’s most recent model.
Diess clearly shows that he is impressed. He indicates that the Model Y is a target for Volkswagen when it comes to performance, range, user experience and automatic updates. He hastens to say that the Tesla is not a source of inspiration in all aspects, but he does not comment on what Volkswagen does better than Tesla in his eyes. Diess does mention a common advantage of the ID.3 and the Model Y: they were both developed from the start as EVs on completely new platforms and therefore not afterwards designed on the platform of a car with combustion engine.
Incidentally, Diess mentions among the same video with Musk that there were no other interests hidden behind the meeting between the two superpowers in the car industry. However, Musk was clearly interested in the specifications of the ID.3 and Diess gave him further explanation. At the Volkswagen group, the realization that there are still some points to make up for Tesla is not new. Earlier, both Diess and the CEO of Audi showed their admiration for Tesla, especially when it comes to the software architecture and the developments in the field of autonomous driving. Diess’s comments on LinkedIn about the Model Y therefore mainly repeat what he has already shown: Volkswagen can still learn from Tesla.