AUTONEWS

VW wants to split the electric market with Tesla

Scott Keogh, the CEO of Volkswagen in the US, where the German manufacturer suffered the biggest break not only in financial terms but also in image, spoke openly about all the issues of the moment with the Motor Trend Americans. VW is a giant, sells more than 10 million vehicles per year and is the leader in this field on a global scale, and despite having incurred penalties of 30 billion euros (among other obligations) due to Dieselgate, this has not greatly affected your fabulous profits. His recent bet on electric vehicles, in parallel with the conventional ranges, with gasoline and diesel engines, proves that the German manufacturer is determined to become a serious case also in battery-powered cars.
In the interview, Scott Keogh admits the TDI and Dieselgate fiasco, but is confident that the brand will be able to win back customers, adding that great efforts are being made in this regard. This despite acknowledging that it will take a few years and that "electric vehicles should help us achieve redemption."
Keogh also admits that, unlike Tesla, VW's future bet is on conventional dealers, though not as used heretofore, too expensive for the manufacturer and, on a table, for the customer.
The curious thing is that when it comes to electric vehicles, the CEO of VW in the US stresses that its brand has the advantage of scale, especially since it does not intend to move only with a vehicle but with a wide range. Still, it admits that Tesla holds 50% of the market, and the remaining 50% will be contested by all other manufacturers, obviously included VW. And there's no one among them who has ever launched a battery-powered vehicle with an obvious advantage over the competition. Scott Keogh will believe that the future I.D. will be the disruptive electric vehicle that will give the German mark an advantage.