Volkswagen draws from Musk’s Twitter script

This is a false April Fool’s Day joke. In an embarrassing apology, Volkswagen was forced to confirm in late March that it was a gimmick to change its name to “Voltswagen” in the United States to embrace the all-electric future.

However, this botched announcement is consistent with the social media strategy launched by the automaker’s German headquarters, which triggered an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission while the group’s US stocks soared.

Last summer, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess told employees that he wanted to be more outspoken online. According to a person close to senior management, he believes that the group has invested more than 35 billion euros in electrical technology and needs to fight Elon Musk and others.

“Maybe we need a big boom,” a person familiar with the strategy described the approach, in which Diess posted more provocative posts on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Diss is also very active on Weibo in China. In terms of followers, he follows Tesla’s founder, who has used social media to promote himself and his company for years.

Volkswagen launched its first dedicated electric vehicle ID.3 last year and sold nearly 232,000 battery-powered vehicles in 2020, making it Europe’s largest electric vehicle company. By the end of this century, it hopes to achieve zero emissions of 70% of its sales in Europe.

Despite this ambition, the German company’s market value is less than one-third of Tesla’s, which is building a factory just 150 miles from the Volkswagen Group’s Wolfsburg base.

For Germany’s steady corporate class, Diss has taken a series of unusual measures to attract the attention of the public.

The Bavarian wore a Batman mask when showing off one of the group’s cars in a LinkedIn post, took a photo with Musk when he visited Volkswagen’s test ID.3, and jokingly mocked him after joining Twitter earlier this year. Sla tried to recruit Diess executives when he was a BMW manager.

Volkswagen’s boss is also arguing online with climate activists and politicians about the best way to achieve carbon-neutral transportation.

A person familiar with the matter said that the weekly social media planning meeting emphasized the importance of this strategy, which was hosted by Diess and lasted for two hours. The analysis of previous posts was carefully studied, and potential “viral content” in the coming days was discussed.

Some people say that this strategy has helped the public gain more recognition.

“Dis received some attention because [Daimler boss Ola] Callenius and [BMW’s Oliver] Zipse will not go out,” said Michael Muders, portfolio manager of Volkswagen’s former seven largest shareholder joint investment.

“You need a lot of money to master the transition,” he added. “This is part of the game plan.”

The key to the plan is to be able to attract the attention of American fund managers, who pay more attention to the public’s young competitors. In order to achieve this goal, Volkswagen recently started to conduct quarterly press conferences in English.

“After Dieselgate, U.S. investors have no interest,” said a person close to the Volkswagen executive board. They added that more than half of Diss’ Twitter followers are from the United States.

With General Motors and Ford Motors making headlines on the date to stop selling internal-combustion vehicles, Volkswagen is trying to emphasize its advantages over traditional competitors in the form of dedicated electric platforms, one of which has been licensed by Ford.

According to Stifel analyst Daniel Schwarz, this technology “puts the public ahead of its peers.” “Now that we have the European Green Agreement, Volkswagen’s strategy looks more promising.”

Along with other events, such as “Power Day”, which focuses on battery technology, aims to create a sensation online, and the public’s online offensive coincides with a sharp rise in manufacturer stocks.

In a short period of time this spring, the Beetle manufacturer once again won the title of Germany’s most valuable listed company, although its already ambitious power plan has not undergone major changes, and it has almost recovered from the 2015 diesel emissions scandal. Lost ground.

Crucially, however, it is not clear how helpful Diess’ tweets are.

Although Volkswagen’s stock price has more than doubled since hitting a 10-year low in March last year, Daimler’s stock price has tripled in the same period, even though its reserved Swedish chief executive did not use Twitter.

“I use LinkedIn because we found it to be a great tool for attracting talent for our company,” Kallenius told the Financial Times. “I insist on using it now.“

If stock prices rise-partly due to the boom in automotive demand-to continue, German automakers may have to do more than just deploy labels.

“The easy money in the market may have been earned,” Union’s Muders said. “The question is what is the profit margin of the electric vehicle business. This will be the focus of the market.”