FRANKFURT — Volkswagen’s Chief Executive Herbert Diess on Monday sought to quell speculation that the world’s largest carmaker, which is on a mass production push for electric cars, has plans to develop deeper ties with startup rival Tesla.
Diess met with Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk in Braunschweig, Germany, last week, and during his visit VW let Musk drive its new ID.3 electric car.
“Just to be clear: We just drove the ID.3 and had a chat — there is no deal/cooperation in the making,” Diess said in a post on Linkedin, which included a video of the two executives driving the vehicle on an airfield.
“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 takeoff — it's not a sports car.”
Musk's reaction to the ID.3? "I think for a non-sporty car it's pretty good," he says in a video on the Volkswagen Group's Twitter.
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