Volkswagen’s Race With Tesla Will Be Tight, Diess Says

Tesla works at twice the industry pace in many processes but still needs to ramp up highly complex factories and find qualified workers to win the electric vehicle race, Volkswagen’s chief executive said on Wednesday.

The U.S. carmaker, posing a challenge to German electric vehicle production with its new plant near Berlin, had the advantage of a blank slate start and a small number of models, Diess said, making it easier to scale.

But his own company Volkswagen was also speeding up, Diess said.

“There’s a lot coming from our side too… a lot of momentum. It will certainly be tight in coming years,” Diess said, speaking at a car industry conference in Bochum, Germany.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Paul Carrel)