On December 16, people familiar with the matter said that on Tuesday local time, Volkswagen chief executive Herbert diess told company executives that VW would compete with Tesla's Berlin super plant under construction through its largest auto plant.

VW's legendary plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, will be upgraded to use the latest electric vehicle technology and software operating procedures, dis said at an internal video conference. The person, who asked not to be named, also said the VW plant is the world's largest car manufacturing plant, producing more than 800000 cars a year.

According to people familiar with the matter, dis aims to get the Wolfsburg plant to meet the target set by Elon Musk, chief executive of rival Tesla, to reduce production time per vehicle to 10 hours. That's less than half of the expected assembly time for Volkswagen Golf or Tiguan, the main product of VW's Wolfsburg plant. He also reiterated that VW must cut its fixed costs substantially to remain competitive.

A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment.

The 62 year old made the comments the day after he won a new vote of confidence in the company. Dis's strategy makes Volkswagen more flexible. VW's board of supervisors also managed to resolve the conflict over the appointment of management, reached a series of cost saving agreements, and decided to retain the dukadi and Lamborghini brands.

At a meeting of executives on Tuesday, Mr. dis said VW plans to create management committee positions in the information technology sector. The company is evaluating potential candidates and plans to make a final decision next year.

He said that although the public has weathered the epidemic crisis relatively smoothly so far, the costs are still too high and the profitability of some competitors has proved to be more resilient. On Monday, VW announced plans to reduce fixed costs by 5% by 2023. (Chen Chen)

Source: Netease technology report, translated by Baidu