Volkswagen Speeds Up Electric Car Production, To Compete With Tesla?

JAKARTA – The car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) has started to change its main factory to produce electric cars. This aims to stem the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, namely Tesla, which dominates the electric car market today and is reportedly starting to enter the German market.

"There is no doubt that we will have to overcome the competitiveness of our factory in Wolfsburg given the new market entrants," said Volkswagen spokesman Michael Manske.

In issuing the statement, Manske pointed to Tesla and the Chinese automaker who managed to enter the European market share. Manske realized Tesla's move in Europe which he called was not kidding.

Tesla is currently reportedly building a factory called the Gigafactory. Located in Berlin with peak capacity it can produce 5,000 to 10,000 electric cars per week. That number is double the total electric vehicles produced in Germany in 2020.

On the other hand, Volkswagen is experiencing negative rumors regarding the company's decision to switch to electric car production. A report published by German media Handelsblatt said that Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said the transition to electric vehicles could cut 30,000 jobs at the company. Manske denied the news.

“The debate is going on right now and there are already a lot of good ideas. There is no concrete scenario," said Manske.

With the news, a spokesman for the VW workers council said it would not comment on the allegations.

"The reduction of 30,000 jobs is unreasonable and unfounded," he said.

Electric vehicles are known to have relatively fewer components than fuel-engine cars, so they only need to use a few workers to produce them. Some observers predict the possibility of job losses in the automotive industry in 2025 due to electrification.

In addition, VW is reportedly targeting a pure electric car maker's production platform to make it more efficient. It takes about 30 hours to produce an electric car made by VW, namely the ID.3, while Tesla only needs 10 hours to produce the Tesla Model 3.

Therefore, the emergence of Tesla in Germany called Diess will trigger electric car competition. Volkswagen itself has its main factory in Wolfsburg, which is the second largest factory in the world with more than 50,000 employees.

VW plans to produce electric sedans starting in 2026 with Project Trinity. The emergence of Tesla in Germany certainly threatens car manufacturers there. Even so, the competition for electric cars will be more crowded.