Volkswagen CEO Deiss Throws Shade At Elon Musk In First Tweet Ever

Volkswagen (VOW3.DE) CEO Herbert Diess has finally jumped onboard Twitter, and his first tweet was firmly directed to one of his rivals – Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.

In his tweet, Diess, 62, said he was ready to make an impact with VW, especially when it came to political issues. But most notably, Diess said he was coming for Tesla and looking to take some of the electric carmaker’s market shares.

Volkswagen has come to market with the electrified ID.3 and e-tron, which Diess pointed out was leading the EV pack in Europe. The VW ID.3 and Audi e-tron are the first mass-market electric vehicles for Volkswagen that are competing against Tesla in the EV car arena.

Diess also said in his tweet to Musk, 49, that he was looking forward to “productive discussions” with the billionaire.

Both Diess and Musk have had a comradery over the years, even as they squashed rumors that VW was planning on buying Tesla.

In September 2019, Diess addressed the rumors of a purchase at the International Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany by saying VW had no interest in buying Tesla.

He said: “I wouldn’t consider a stake in Tesla. I wouldn’t buy a stake because I think all they are doing, we can do.”

But Diess admitted at the time that he admired Tesla as a company and enjoys driving its cars.

Musk also showed that he has respect for Diess. In a tweet in September 2019, he complimented the VW CEO by saying the automaker was “doing more than any big carmaker to go electric,” adding that Diess has his support.

The pair also teamed up for a test drive of VW’s ID.3 electric car in September 2020, as Musk came up for a visit of the automaker’s factory, which was being constructed near Berlin, Bloomberg reported.

Shares of Tesla were trading at $844.86 as of 12:23 p.m. EST, down $5.59 or 0.66%, while shares of Volkswagen were trading at $162.04 as of market close, up $4.42 or 2.80%.