German car manufacturer, Volkswagen (VW), is targeting to overtake electric car giant Tesla as the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.
Moreover, Tesla is currently facing a shortage of batteries to increase production of electric cars.
CEO Herbert Diess said seeing Tesla’s problems with battery supply and the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be an opportunity for VW to increase production of electric cars. He targets VW to surpass Tesla’s production as the largest in the world by 2025.
“Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin and Grünheide [near Berlin] — and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength,” Herbert Diess in Wolfsburg told the Financial Times.
Diess, who has been in charge of the Volkswagen Group since 2018, added that Volkswagen has increased production volumes for its EVs in China following the COVID-19 shutdown.
In addition, it also increased production volumes in Zwickau, Germany, thanks to reduced bottlenecks in semiconductor supply. Volkswagen targets a production volume of around 800,000 electric vehicles this year.
Volkswagen aims to produce 1.2 million by 2023 after a major overhaul of its facilities. Tesla, meanwhile, expects an output of around 1.5 million EVs by early 2022.
“We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly — by 2025 we can be in the lead,” Diess added.
