Published 17:15 IST, January 21st 2021
'Looking forward...': Volkswagen boss takes a swipe at Elon Musk in his first ever tweet
"Hello @Twitter!I'm here to make impact with @VWGroup, especially on political issues. And, ofcourse, to get some of your market shares, @elonmusk," Diess said.
Volkswagen AGs chief executive officer Herbert Diess on January 20 took a swipe against the Tesla founder Elon Musk as he joined the microblogging site Twitter. In his first tweet, the Volkswagen boss trolled Musk, saying: "Hello @Twitter! I'm here to make an impact with @VWGroup, especially on political issues. And, of course, to get some of your market shares, @elonmusk - after all, our ID.3 and e-Tron have won the first markets in Europe. Looking forward to productive discussions.”
Diess and Musk have been long-time friends and Musk had also visited Diess during the launch of his upcoming electric cars in the VW line. Musk had tweeted that Diess was "doing more than any big carmaker to go electric.” Meanwhile, the VW boss had given Tesla Model Y a test drive, calling it a reference motorcade for the German automakers."Of course, I also tested a Tesla Model Y with my colleague Frank Welsch. This car is for us in many aspects (not in all!) a reference: user experience, driving features, the performance of the top of the range models, charging network, range," Diess said in a statement. However, in most recent, Diess trolled the South African-born entrepreneur who recently overtook Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to become the richest person, asserting that his mass-market electric VW cars and Audi’s were performing extremely well in Europe.
VW sold 10,475 ID
Volkswagen AG’s ID.3 hatchback VW sold 10,475 ID.3s in October 2020 and topped Europe’s electric-car sales chart just months after hitting the European market. The new player in the market beat Renault SA, Renault’s Zoe subcompact, and Musk’s Tesla Inc.’s Model 3. According to Bloomberg’s analysis, while Elon Musk’s Tesla sold 834 Model 3 sedans, VW sold 10,475 ID. Diess car leapfrogged Musk’s Tesla in EV Sales Charts to become one of the best selling, securing more than sizeable 19 percent market in Norway, gaining rise across Netherlands and Ireland. Musk’s Tesla, meanwhile, remained under Europe’s EV Top 10 for the entire month as Volkwagen captured the market with 10,315 buyers despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In its recent announcement, VW said that it will launch ID.4 SUV EV in North America.
Updated 17:15 IST, January 21st 2021