There was more than normal market talk about Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) on Tuesday, following the release of an analyst’s opinion that the company will soon be overtaken by a major rival in the electric vehicle (VE) segment.
Gordon Johnson, who accompanies Tesla to GLJ Research, said Volkswagen (OTC: VWAGY) will overtake the company in terms of sales of EV units this year. Volkswagen said on Tuesday that it intends to deliver 1 million EVs over the course of 2021. In contrast, Johnson pointed out, Tesla said it expects a 50% increase in its deliveries, however, this takes the company to a lower floor. nearly 750,000 units for the year.
Image source: Tesla Motors.
Volkswagen is clearly determined to be a global EV power, as it has been in the internal combustion engine (ICE) market for many years. In fact, on Tuesday it also declared its goal of being the world’s largest EV maker by 2025 at the latest. As this will happen in just a few years, we can expect that the company will charge as much as possible to fulfill this ambition.
Whether he can do this at Tesla’s expense is an open question, as Volkswagen has not been as prominent in the United States as it has been in some of its other locations. In addition, Tesla EVs still have prestige as high-end cars, while Volkswagen is more focused on the mass market and therefore has a less “cool” line of models, for the most part.
Neither Tesla nor its CEO Elon Musk has yet responded to Volkswagen’s latest pronouncements.
Investors may consider the German-based company to be a growing threat, however. On Tuesday, Tesla’s shares fell 4.4%, against the only marginal drop in the S&P 500 index.
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