Herbert Diess, who was fired as CEO of Volkswagen in 2022, hasn’t held back his opinion on Tesla’s recent progress.
According to the German news outlet WirtschaftsWoche, Diess believes Tesla is "resting on its laurels" and failing to innovate at the pace expected of an industry leader.
Lack of New Models and Innovation
“Tesla has done too little recently,” Diess stated. He noted that the company still only offers two core models and hasn’t significantly advanced their development.
This criticism comes despite Diess’s earlier admiration for Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, during his tenure at Volkswagen. Back in 2020, Diess personally showcased Volkswagen’s then-new ID.3 model to Musk, hoping to impress him.
However, Tesla’s CEO offered little positive feedback on the ID.3, and Diess has since grown critical of Tesla’s direction.
Diess pointed to several areas where Tesla, in his view, is falling behind: repeated price reductions, a limited model range, and insufficient progress in the company’s service network.
He also expressed disappointment in Tesla’s development of autonomous driving technology, saying, “Tesla doesn’t seem to be making as good progress with autonomous driving as I thought.”
Despite Diess’s critique, Tesla remains a strong player in the electric vehicle market.
Reports indicate that Tesla may soon introduce a self-driving taxi, which could change the narrative about the company’s innovation trajectory.
