It Is No Secret That Volkswagen And Tesla Are Competing For The Electric Vehicle Market; Although Tesla Led The World With Sales Of 936174 Vehicles At The End Of 2021, Volkswagen Followed With Sales Of 757994 Vehicles. At The Beginning Of 2022, The Situation Changed Greatly. The Record High Oil Price Caused By The Russian Ukrainian War Pushed The Demand For All Electric Vehicles To A New High.
In The Face Of The Increasing Global Demand For Green Cars That Can Reduce Dependence On Fossil Fuels, Volkswagen And Tesla Have Formulated Their Game Plans, And Both Companies Have Reached The Same Conclusion: The Production Scale Needs To Be Greatly Expanded. On March 21, 2022, Elon Musk, CEO Of Tesla, Released The Details Of What He Called "master Plan 3" On Twitter, Explaining That It Would Be About "expanding To Extreme Scale, Which Is The Need For Mankind To Get Rid Of Fossil Fuels And Artificial Intelligence". On The Day After His "master Plan" Tweet Was Released, Musk Personally Held The Inauguration Ceremony For The New Tesla Gigafactory In Berlin, Which Is An Intelligent And Highly Automated Automobile Factory, Which Will Double The Company's Global Automobile Production.
According To Bloomberg, The New Tesla Gigafactory In Germany Is Only An Hour Away From Volkswagen Headquarters, Which Will Invest $2.2 Billion To Build A New Factory Dedicated To The Manufacture Of Electric Vehicles. Volkswagen Occupies A Dominant Position In The European Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Market. In Response To Tesla's Actions In Europe, It Decided To Attack Its Competitors At Its Home. The Company Announced That It Would Invest $7.1 Billion In The United States To Focus On Its American Electric Vehicle Strategy And Launch Redesigned Electric VW Bus, ID And Other Models.
Robotics, Smart Factories And Vertical Integration Will Change Electric Vehicle Factories
When The Supply Chain Is Seriously Affected, Electric Vehicle Manufacturers That Vertically Integrate Their Production And Internally Manufacture Most Of The Auto Parts Have The Upper Hand. In April 2022, Scott Keao, CEO And President Of Volkswagen Group, Said In An Interview With CNN Financial Channel That There Was A Serious Shortage Of Chips, Nickel, Lithium And Other Key Components Needed To Manufacture Electric Vehicles. The Company Is Investing In A Vertical Integration Strategy.
Tesla Has Been Striving For Vertical Integration For Many Years. In 2016, Electek Responded To A Report By Goldman Sachs Analysts That Tesla Had 80% Vertical Integration. The Report Highlights How Rare This Model Was In The Automotive Industry In Those Years. Traditionally, Car Factories Rely On Different Manufacturers And Suppliers To Build A Car, But The Vertical Integration Approach Aims To Reduce This Dependence: Make Everything Internally. The Previously Popular Video Of UAVs Flying Over Tesla's Gigafactory In New Berlin Shows What Vertical Integration Looks Like In The Modern World. In Addition, The Video Also Reveals How Tesla Uses Extremely Automated And Advanced Robotics To Lead Global Production.
Although The Automotive Industry Was The First To Adopt Robotics On A Large Scale In Factories, Tesla Pushed The Concept Further. The Company Combines Robotics And Automation With Artificial Intelligence To Create A System That Makes Every Car It Makes Smarter. Volkswagen Has Learned So Fast That It Has Even Learned The Same Robotics Methods From Its Main Competitors. "I've Always Admired Elon Musk And Tesla. He Said, 'make A Cool Car And Good Things Will Happen'," Keo Said.
UAV Flies Over Tesla's Gigafactory In New Berlin