11:50 am, January 21, 2021
Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has joined Twitter and chose to challenge Elon Musk with his first tweet.
Since joining in December 2020, Diess had stayed quiet but yesterday afternoon (Jan 20) he decided to post for the first time with a jibe at the Tesla boss.
His message to Musk was that Volkswagen Group was coming for some of the electric giants market share.
According to the Electrek, Tesla now holds around 18 per cent of the EV market globally – three times its nearest rivals Volkswagen, BYD and BMW who all hold a six per cent share.
Diess tweeted: ‘Hello Twitter! I’m here to make an impact with VW Group, especially on political issues.
‘And, of course, to get some of your market shares, Elon Musk – after all, our ID.3 and e-tron have won the first markets in Europe.
‘Looking forward to productive discussions!’
The Tesla boss hasn’t responded to the tweet but it has gained a lot of attention with more than 1,200 retweets to date as well as attracting more than 10,000 followers to the CEO’s account.
Diess followed up his tweet later in the day with another about German legislation regarding autonomous vehicles, possibly what he meant when he pledged to make an impact on political issues.
The VW boss is known to respect Musk but enjoy a joke with him, and in September 2020 took him for a test drive in the brand’s ID.3.
In a LinkedIn post sharing footage from the meeting, Diess wrote: ‘Thanks for the visit, Elon! Hope you like the video. It was great driving the ID.3 with you!
‘You were just quite critical with the available torque at higher speed. I told you: “Yes, we are on the runway – but no need for take off – its not a sports car.” For this you should try our Porsche Taycan.’
- Join our breaking news WhatsApp group – Click here to join now
- Car Dealer Podcast – Listen to the latest episode here
- Car Dealer Top 100 – The most profitable car dealers in the UK here
