Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Volkswagen can overtake Tesla to become the largest electric vehicle manufacturer by 2025, as the challenge of lifting production weakens its fiercest EV rival, claims Herbert Diess, VW Group’s chief executive.

Volkswagen can overtake Tesla to become the largest electric vehicle manufacturer by 2025, as the challenge of lifting production weakens its fiercest EV rival, claims Herbert Diess, VW Group’s chief executive.
While addressing workers at VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters on Tuesday, Herbert Diess said:
“Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin and Grünheide [near Berlin] and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength. We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly — by 2025 we can be in the lead.”
VW, which has invested more than €52 billion Euros in the development of battery-powered vehicles, plans to sell approximately 700,000 electric cars worldwide this year, less than half of the 1.5 million that Tesla chief executive Elon Musk suggested his brand would be able to deliver.
However, Tesla, which coped better than most competitors during the early stages of the semiconductor supply crisis, has more recently been plagued with production problems at its so-called gigafactories in the US, Europe and China. Musk told a Tesla owners’ club last month that the company’s plants in Texas and Germany were “gigantic money furnaces right now”, losing billions of dollars as they struggle to secure parts and accelerate manufacturing in the face of global supply chain bottlenecks. The Tesla boss also indicated a fear of going bankrupt.
Diess, who is friendly with Musk and has credited the entrepreneur with popularizing electric cars, seized on these developments in his address to staff, saying that while VW’s strongest competitor “remains Tesla”, the American company was “weakening”. In contrast, VW was running its electric plant in Zwickau at full capacity again after temporary shutdowns, while its factories in China had come back online after pandemic-related closures. As a result, Volkswagen chief predicted that “VW will close the gap to Tesla and not let it grow even larger” this year.
Separately, Siemens announced it had invested $450 million for a minority stake in VW’s North American charging network, known as Electrify America, in a deal that values the division at $2.45 billion. VW invested $2 billion into Electrify America as part of a court settlement over the diesel emissions scandal. It plans to have 10,000 charging stations by 2026.


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Kalle Rovanperä convincingly won the Kenya Safari Rally 2022.

Kalle Rovanperä convincingly won the Kenya Safari Rally 2022.
On the last day of the race on the African continent, Rovanperä K. / Halttunen Jonne (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) not only managed to keep their lead of 40 seconds, but also added another 12 seconds to finish first with a lead of 52.8 seconds ahead of Evans Elfyn / Martin Scott (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1).
This is an incredible victory for the Toyota team, as their dominance occupies not only the podium, but even the fourth place.
Third were Katsuta T. / Johnston Aaron (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) at 1:42.7, and fourth were Ogier S. / Veillas B. (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) at 2:10.3.
Long back in time, Neuville T. / Wydaeghe M. (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) is more than 10 minutes behind, but still 5th in the final standings. However, Neuville managed to take the victory in the Power Stage.
Loeb Sébastien / Galmiche I. (Ford Puma Rally1) after a series of problems and flat tires remained 8th in 32 minutes behind.
Expected first in RC2 are Kajetanowicz K. / Szczepaniak M. (Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo).
The Kenya Safari Rally will be remembered as the most dusty race with a lot of fashion and tracks.
Safari Rally Kenya is the 6th race in a row in the championship, and until the end of the season there are 7 more races, the next one being Rally Estonia on July 14-17.
With his victory in Kenya, Kalle Rovanperä has established himself as the sole leader in the championship with a huge difference from the competition and is moving very confidently to win the championship this year.


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In the first 6 sections of the 2022 Kenya Safari Rally, Sebastien Ogier led the column.

In the first 6 sections of the 2022 Kenya Safari Rally, Sebastien Ogier led the column. But in the last stage of Friday, a flat tire threw Ogier out of the fight for the leadership position. At the same last stage of the day, Thierre Neuville also had a flat tire. Neuville had previously complained of power loss. Thus, from the first place, Ogier dropped to 6th place, and Neuville managed to finish without wasting much time.
In the early stages of the battle between the two Frenchmen Loeb and Ogier in the tenth.
Ott Tanak had problems with the gearbox and that took him out of the fight for the podium.
The pilots complained of large tracks, lots of dust and large stones.
It was the big dust that made Sebastien Loeb turn and lose direction. Then electrical problems threw Loeb out of the race.
Thus, at the end of the day, Kalle Rovanperä took the lead without any serious problems.
Quite a surprising second place for Katsuta T. / Johnston Aaron (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1).
Today, Evans Elfyn / Martin Scott (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) moved to second place at a fairly steady pace.
At the end of Saturday, the day before the end of the Kenya Safari Rally, Rovanperä K. / Halttunen Jonne (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) led with a comfortable lead of 40.3 seconds over Evans Elfyn / Martin Scott (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1). Third place went to Katsuta T. / Johnston Aaron (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) at 1: 15.6, and to fourth place after the problems with a flat tire were Ogier S. / Veillas B. (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1).
The four crews will determine the podium tomorrow, Sunday, June 26.
First in RC2 are the Poles Kajetanowicz K. / Szczepaniak M. (Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo), who have a huge lead and are sure to be the favorites to win in RC2.


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