VW CEO Herbert Diess is mocking his friendly rivalry with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his Twitter debut while trying to position Volkswagen as a leader in electrification.
Tesla and Twitter
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an avid Twitter user and has managed to gain over 42 million followers on the platform.
You could easily argue that Musk’s Twitter account has been an important asset for Tesla as one of the main ways for the automaker to spread information about its products, services and technology.
Musk also used the platform to help recruit people at Tesla and receive feedback from customers.
We recently reported that Tesla was looking to hire people to send complaints to Elon Musk on Twitter.
On the other hand, the CEO also used the platform to spread false information about the Covid-19 pandemic.
VW CEO Herbert Diess follows Musk’s lead on Twitter
Although they are technically competitors, Diess and Musk say they have a friendly relationship.
The two met last year when Diess showed Musk the VW ID.3.
Diess often shared publicly that he admired what Musk and Tesla did for the electrification of the industry and, since becoming CEO of Volkswagen in 2018, he has tried to lead the German automaker to try to achieve Tesla’s leadership in key aspects of electrification.
Now, Diess is also accessing Twitter and, in her first tweet, decided to mock her rivalry with Musk:
While the comment is obviously ironic, it could actually help VW’s electrification effort if Diess could spread more information about VW’s electric vehicles to the strong electric vehicle community on Twitter.
Diess is also trying to get Tesla’s momentum in the stock market to pass to the Volkswagen group.
Tesla is worth about 8 times Volkswagen’s $ 100 billion valuation, although the German automaker also invests heavily in electric vehicles and battery production.
Will you follow Diess on Twitter? Let us know in the comments section below.
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