FRANKFURT, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Drawing up a plan to transform Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant into a competitive counterweight to Tesla’s planned Gruenheide factory will slightly delay the German carmaker’s next 5-year investment plan, its chief executive said.
“Over the past few weeks we have intensified the discussions around a shared vision for Wolfsburg 2030,” Herbert Diess told analysts following the presentation of third-quarter results.
“The increased competitive pressures have underscored the necessity to include this joint vision in our next planning round.”
Diess said that all parties had agreed at supervisory board meeting on Wednesday to move the submission of the investment plan to Dec. 9, “giving us a few more weeks to agree on a shared vision and roadmap for the transformation”.
Volkswagen had originally planned to agree on the next investment plan on Nov. 12. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Maria Sheahan)