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by rcMgD2BwE72F 2213 days ago
Or maybe Tesla couldn't ship car to Europe for delivery in April -- contrary to the VW group, whose sales are mostly local stock and who don't have to ship the cars across the Atlantic.

Also, Tesla delivers most its cars in Europe in the first month of the quarter. So comparing VW and Tesla over two periods with only partial quarter sales makes very little sense. Matthias Schmidt has known this for years, for some reason, he still prefer not to tell his audience about such a huge bias in the data. Weird.
1 comments
clouddrover 2213 days ago
They're car companies selling cars. Volkswagen is the world's biggest car company. It's no surprise that they're becoming the biggest EV company as well. I really wouldn't worry about it.
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rcMgD2BwE72F 2213 days ago
> I really wouldn't worry about it.

You should worry about battery production capacity. VW has been having issues and won't be able to build EV in volume for some time unless they start manufacturing them. Being the world's biggest ICE company does not help with securing battery supplies, especially when your #1 competitor keeps increasing its global lead.

Tesla has far more purchase power than VW for batteries (NB: needing them for cars and stationary storage makes you a better partner too). They have more control over their supply chain, they have big contracts with all cell manufacturers (Pana CATL, LG, Samsung...), they run their own factories, they're integrating cell and car production in all new factories, they develop their own chemistry and will soon reveal a roadmap to achieve 1-2TWh of cell production... per year (source: https://youtu.be/SG-59Os2H5o?t=2279)

Good intro on how Tesla could do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtV9a5MW_X0

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gamblor956 2213 days ago
Panasonic and LG also make batteries for VW...

Note that Samsung does not make batteries for Tesla's vhicles, only its stationary products like the powerwall. This is the same for LG outside of the Chinese market.

Additionally, Tesla's battery factory is actually Panasonic's battery factory. Panasonic is the primary partner in that joint venture.

Tesla still has the same dependence on external parties as VW, they were just first to the ball and have contractual priority on production capacity existing or planned at the time the contracts were signed.

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clouddrover 2213 days ago
> especially when your #1 competitor keeps increasing its global lead

Volkswagen's #1 competitor is Toyota.

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