Love and kill each other
I don't know when tesla began, tesla is like a damos sword, making it difficult for the public to sleep. Defeating Tesla has also become the goal of the public's mind.
In 2017, Volkswagen expressed confidence in surpassing Tesla in the competition. Since then, Volkswagen has opened a protracted, auspicious, chattering "love transcendence" for Tesla, if you participate in Volkswagen's external activities and do not hear its shouts against Tesla, you must have walked to the wrong venue.
Volkswagen DISS Tesla is serious, in addition to verbal benchmarking, in temperament also began to make themselves more like Tesla. Its first MEB platform model ID.4X promotional poster even made a comparison with the Tesla Model* configuration, although the promotional poster did not directly disclose the model model, but the industry can see at a glance that it is tesla Model 3.
On February 14, 2022, Hapag-Lloyd Disney, CEO of Volkswagen Group and Chairman of the Group's Board of Management, entered the overseas social media Reddit, becoming the first CEO of a car company to have an official private account on Reddit, creating a social-loving "Volkswagen CEO" image.
Prior to this, In early 2021, Diess had already entered Twitter, and interestingly, the first tweet he sent was to shout musk, announcing that he would seize market share from the other side. At that time, the media ridiculed the two as "CP" in the car circle, achieving a good story of "good friends".
Perhaps it was felt that this kind of air shouting was not enough, and the public also played the political diplomacy that Europeans are good at, that is, alliances. In 2020, Volkswagen Group and Ford Motor Vehicle signed a strategic alliance agreement, and the two sides will work together in the field of electrification. Among them, Ford Motor will also build a pure electric vehicle for European customers based on the Volkswagen Group's MEB platform, and plans to launch it in 2023.
On March 17, Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, an ally, said in an interview with the media that the absence of traditional automakers guarantees Tesla's victory and could pose some challenges to Tesla if European and American automakers launch an electric vehicle offensive. In other words, Tesla won because traditional car companies had done nothing before, and as long as traditional car companies challenged, Tesla would not win.
It is gratifying that for many years, this offensive of public opinion has not caused both sides to tear their faces. At the Volkswagen Group's annual meeting on March 15, Diess spared no effort to praise Tesla as a pioneer. Previously, Musk has also given high praise to Volkswagen and Dies himself.
Soldiers are under the city
After enduring years of endless DISS, Tesla finally fought back and smashed the Volkswagen Group's German "old nest".
On March 22, Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory was officially unveiled, which is Tesla's second gigafactory outside the United States. The first gigafactory is located in Shanghai, China.
It is understood that this super factory focuses on the task of orders in Europe. According to JPMorgan's forecasts, the plant could produce 54,000 Teslas in the remaining nine months of 2022, 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 by 2025. In addition, the plant has reserved most of the land, and plans to establish a supporting battery factory, and the scale of the battery factory will exceed all the current battery factories in Germany.
This is a big positive for Tesla to compete for the European market. Previously, Tesla's European orders needed to depart from Shanghai, with high costs such as transportation and taxes. With the production of the German factory, due to the lack of import taxes and transportation costs, Tesla's price in Europe has received a reduced capital.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Domestic Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, once pointed out that European localization production can not only avoid high European tariffs, but also reduce costs, and Tesla's price exploration space is greater, which can further seize the European market.
This is not alarmist, the previous Chinese market is a lesson from the past. At the beginning of 2020, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory officially landed, and began to deliver the domestic version of model3 to domestic users. After the domestic listing, Tesla has reduced its price several times in China, and the lowest price of some models has dropped to less than 200,000 yuan. Such a price reduction strategy made Tesla popular in the Chinese market, and soon ascended to the throne of domestic electric vehicle sales.
Will such a drama be repeated in the European market? During the debut of the German super factory, Tesla also announced the price of European electric vehicles, modelY high-performance version configuration model price of about 70491 US dollars, while raising the price in the United States and China, of which the Us high-performance version price increased to 67990 US dollars, while China will be higher, more than 80000 US dollars.
From the current point of view, Tesla has not yet adopted its competitive strategy in the Chinese market in the European market, but it can only be said that it coincides with force majeure factors such as the rise of raw materials, and the future is not impossible.
For the public, the current situation is already under the siege of the city and the sword is raging.
Wei Wei rescued Zhao
In the face of the opponent's step-by-step approach, volkswagen also did not have a soft heart, but quickly played a complete set of combination punches.
On March 21, the day before the opening of Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory, Volkswagen Group unveiled a $7.1 billion investment plan to step up its efforts to seize the North American electric vehicle market and expand its footprint in Tesla's "backyard."
It is understood that the goal of the investment is to launch 25 new electric vehicles in North America by 2030, and eventually by 2030, 55% of Volkswagen's sales in the US market will be pure electric vehicles. The plan also includes preparations for the production of electric vehicles at the chattanooga, Tennessee, starting in 2022, including assembly of ID.4 SUVs and procurement of parts supply. According to Volkswagen's 2021 North American market of 908,000 units, 55% is about 500,000 units. This will have little impact on Volkswagen, which has nearly 9 million global sales in 2021. This also dooms Volkswagen's counterattack against Tesla cannot only stay in the North American market.
On the same day that the $7.1 billion investment plan was announced, Volkswagen also released a blockbuster event in China, where Tesla's first gigafactory is located.
On March 21, Volkswagen Group China announced that it has signed two memorandums of understanding on strategic cooperation with Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Group to establish a joint venture with the latter in Indonesia and Guangxi. Among them, the Indonesian tripartite joint venture company is mainly to meet the supply of nickel and cobalt raw materials required for batteries; the Guangxi joint venture company proposed to be established with Huayou Cobalt will specialize in the refining of nickel and cobalt sulfates, precursor processing and cathode material production.
For this cooperation, Volkswagen also clearly stated that "this cooperation will help achieve the long-term goal of reducing the group's battery cost by 30% to 50%." "This is a very accurate counterattack strategy for Tesla, which is good at competing for market share at price."
Of course, industry insiders also pointed out that under the surge in demand for new energy vehicles, in order to ensure sufficient supply of raw materials, the layout of upstream resources has become the most ideal solution for power battery companies and vehicle companies. Therefore, even without the existence of Tesla, this will be an inevitable choice for Volkswagen's electrification transformation.
For the Chinese market, on March 16, Volkswagen Group (China) CEO Feng Sihan said that in 2022, Volkswagen hopes to double its sales in China, while expanding ID. pure electric agent stores and continuing to update OTA. By 2030, the ratio of Volkswagen electric vehicles to traditional fuel vehicles will reach 50:50. Based on Volkswagen's sales of more than 3.3 million vehicles in China in 2021, Volkswagen's sales target for electric vehicles in China is about 1.7 million units, which is much higher than the 500,000 units in the North American market.
It can be seen that Volkswagen and Tesla have become a fact of mutual pounding, but the main battlefield in the future is likely to be in China.