Oliver Blume, Porsche Chief Executive and now also the new CEO of Volkswagen after Herbet Diess was forced to step down announced he wants to keep the manufacturer’s current path towards electrification and, where possible, increase its pace. The new VW boss noted that the automaker would need to find the right rhythm in which to make the shift to EVs so that it’s all as sustainable as possible and it also shouldn’t lose the company too much money in the process either.
According to Reuters, Blume said during a recent meeting for VW’s top global managers in Lisbon that
I am a fan of e-mobility and I stand by this path ... We will keep the current pace and, where possible, increase it.
One report we covered in June suggested Volkswagen would overtake Tesla for EV sales in the next 18 months, but it seems optimistic given some of the numbers we’ve seen. With expected EV sales in 2022 of around 800,000 units, then 1.3-million in 2023, VW will definitely narrow the gap between it and Tesla, which in turn predicts an annual growth of 50 percent for the number of vehicles delivered in 2022.
In other words, Tesla expects to sell 1.5-million EVs this year, almost twice as many as VW, and if it maintains a similar growth rate into 2023, then next year it should easily manage to sell well over 2-million vehicles. The American automaker is building factories around the world and doesn’t plan on stopping soon, although according to Herbert Diess, building so many new factories will, in fact, weaken Tesla.
Volkswagen is still doing better than most manufacturers when it comes to tweaking its business model in order to embrace the shift to EVs quicker than rivals, and proof of this is not only the number of vehicles sold, but also the fact that the manufacturer is able to turn a profit selling high volumes of EVs. It’s still up for debate whether it will fulfill its former CEO’s goal of surpassing Tesla by 2025.
