Volkswagen Group chief Herbert Diess joined Twitter on Wednesday, and his first tweet was a slight troll from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“Hello @Twitter! I’m here to make an impact on @VWGroup, especially on political issues ”, Diess I wrote. “And, of course, to get some of their market share, @elonmusk – after all, our ID.3 and e-tron have conquered the first markets in Europe. Looking forward to productive discussions! “
Diess – who last year settled criminal charges related to his role in the Dieselgate emissions scandal – was referring to how the first mass electric vehicles of his VW and Audi brands performed well in Europe (and especially Germany) in their year debut, causing Tesla will lose market share on the continent. (Namely, while writing this, Tesla lowered prices for the Model 3 in Europe.)
Hi @Twitter! I’m here to make an impact with @VWGroup, especially on political issues. And, of course, to get some of your market share, @elonmusk – after all, our ID.3 and e-tron conquered the first markets in Europe. Looking forward to productive discussions!
– Herbert Diess (@Herbert_Diess) January 20, 2021
Most automotive and other brand CEOs use Twitter mandatorily. They make majestic comments about new products or initiatives, but are absent from the daily routine.
It’s hard to imagine Diess – who has praised Musk in the past – doing much more than tweeting fun jabs like Wednesday’s, let alone engaging Musk on his terms with memes, sarcasm and jokes that mess with the stock price. On the one hand, Diess barely survived a major power struggle within the Volkswagen Group. Although he remains the chief boss, he was stripped of his title as CEO of the VW brand in large part because of the major software problems that ID 3 had during its launch.
Strange things happened, but the idea that Diess – who apparently got his executives to participate in a “synthesis workshop” – would break the edgelord seems unlikely. Musk, meanwhile, has spent nearly two years possibly violating a court order that says he should have tweets about Tesla shortlisted by a lawyer.
To Musk’s credit, he also spends a lot of time on Twitter responding to customers who have suggestions or complaints about Tesla products. In fact, this has become such a critical pipeline that Tesla’s energy division has spent the past few months hiring customer service specialists who are now helping to meet these requests. If Diess learns a lesson on how to use Twitter with Musk, this may be a good place to start, given the status of ID 3.