Volkswagen is a “second mover” in electric commercial vehicles, after lagging companies including Tesla and Deutsche Post DHL in putting them on the road, the head of VW’s trucks business stated.
He stated Volkswagen had emissions-free options to conventional trucks and buses on offer.
“Cultures are not changed overnight,” German newspaper Tagesspiegel quoted Andreas Renschler as saying, who is also a member of Volkswagen’s group management board. In the public, it is correct that it is a matter of course that it will be faster. “But such a process takes time, of course,” Renschler said.
“However maybe the German manufacturers were too slow. It could be,” said Renschler.
Truck producers such as Tesla, Daimler and Navistar International Corp are racing to conquer the challenges of replacing batteries for diesel motor as regulators investigate carbon dioxide and soot pollution.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the company would show off a prototype of an electric semi-trailer truck on October 26.
“Tesla has set some crucial and good impulses in the industry,” said VW’s Renschler, but he also said Volkswagen was rather a “second mover, who would rather inspect a number of times more whether the standards are right.”
Daimler stated on Thursday that United Parcel Service would be the first U.S. commercial customer for its new battery-powered eCanter truck.
But German logistics group Deutsche Post silently made its own electric delivery van, the StreetScooter, and prepares to double yearly output to 20,000 by the end of the year.
Volkswagen stated at the Frankfurt auto show this week that it was stepping up its shift to electric vehicles by spending over 20 billion euros ($24 billion) in zero-emission automobiles by 2030 to challenge Tesla in producing a mass market.
