VW CEO takes a 'friendly' dig at Musk on Twitter

San Francisco: Volkswagen AG's chief executive officer Herbert Diess made his debut on Twitter with light trolling of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In his first tweet, he said that VW was coming after Tesla's market share and already winning the battle for buyers in Europe.

"Hello @Twitter! I'm here to make an impact with @VWGroup, especially on political issues. And, of course, to get some of your market shares, @elonmusk – after all, our ID.3 and e-tron have won the first markets in Europe. Looking forward to productive discussions," Diess said in his tweet on Wednesday. The two have been friends with one another for years, with Tesla's CEO tweeting in September 2019 that Diess was "doing more than any big carmaker to go electric."

In September last year, after Musk paid a friendly visit to Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess to get a special look at VW's new upcoming electric cars, Diess drove Tesla Model Y, saying it was a "reference" car for the German automaker.

The carmaker confirmed that there was no deal in the making between the two automakers and it was basically just Diess checking out Musk's latest electric car. "Of course, I also tested a Tesla Model Y - with my colleague Frank Welsch. This car is for us in many aspects (not in all!) a reference: user experience, driving features, the performance of the top of the range models, charging network, range," Diess has said.