You needn’t delve far into history to understand the disquiet sparked by Volkswagen Group (VWG) CEO Herbert Diess’s recent bold assertion that his firm wants to battle with Tesla to become the world’s biggest EV manufacturer by 2025.
Similar rhetoric was common at VWG in the years prior to Dieselgate, and while the reasons for the deceit that caused that scandal are many and varied, that quest for world domination leading to total humiliation is as towering an example of corporate hubris as you will find.
So it was that Diess’s words sent commentators into overdrive, in part because of that supposed arrogance of the ambition and in part because chasing volume over profit goes so far against the grain of the car industry at the moment, much of which is enjoying best-ever margins despite historically low sales.
