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Tesla and Volkswagen: from fierce competitors to unlikely allies
Tesla and Volkswagen have established themselves as unlikely allies in the world of turning vehicles toward electrification. However, the two companies did not always see eye to eye, but the tides have certainly changed. Evidence of this comes just a day after Elon Musk took an unexpected stop in Western Germany to see Volkswagen Chairman Herbert Diess.
Years ago, Volkswagen and Tesla were sitting at opposite ends of the spectrum. One company was a well-established marvel of German automotive manufacturing, while the other was struggling to rally enough capital to keep its own production efforts moving forward.
However, 2020 has given the two companies and effective dose of the “Freaky Friday” treatment, where the former automaker is struggling to keep functioning EVs on the road. Meanwhile, the latter is surging forward the charge to electrification and maintains a healthy lead over other companies that are attempting to follow in their steps.
But from 2008 to 2015, Volkswagen was far from ever being considered a Tesla ally. The German automaker was violating the EPA’s Clean Air Act by knowingly placing cheat devices in their car’s emissions systems. The scandal, known as Dieselgate, set a semi-permanent mark in the minds of the environmentally-conscious.
Many swore never to consider repurchasing a Volkswagen vehicle, but the company has won some prominent figures in the EV community. Most notably, Elon Musk. But the relationship wasn’t always healthy.
Musk was critical of a conspiracy that a Volkswagen employee was criticizing Tesla through a fake name. According to numerous sources, Diess had the situation handled, but the drama between the two companies didn’t necessarily end there.
Dieselgate was still slightly in the head of Musk. The CEO mentioned that Tesla’s HEPA grade filter was needed while sitting in close traffic because toxic tailpipe emissions could affect the air quality of those who occupy vehicles that are around. “Good thing gas/diesel carmakers didn’t cheat on their emissions or we’d be in real trouble,” Musk joked, indirectly taking a jab at Volkswagen’s wrongdoing.
In close traffic, poisonous gas spewing from the car in front of you goes straight into your AC intake. Good thing gas/diesel carmakers didn’t cheat on their emissions or we’d be in real trouble 😅
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2019
However, Musk has recognized that Diess is an ally and is driving Volkswagen toward electrification. The Tesla CEO even said that Diess is “doing more than any big carmaker to go electric. For what it’s worth, he has my support.”
Musk and Diess then appeared on stage together at the Golden Steering Wheel Awards in Berlin last November, trading compliments and smiling from ear to ear with encouragement. The two had shown their business ventures had resulted in a healthy friendship, and Musk even announced that Tesla would be bringing a new facility to Berlin on the same evening.
In early September 2020, Musk flew to Germany to conduct business. His final stop on his quick tour of the country was to pay his friend Diess a brief visit, where Musk drove the ID.3 from Volkswagen and took a peek at the Model Y’s competition in the ID.4. With Giga Berlin moving along swiftly and Tesla intending to start manufacturing vehicles in July 2021, it would seem that Diess would want to keep a competitor at bay and not reveal his plans for an electric car. But he was more than willing to show Musk around. Why?
While company collaborations are rare in the automotive sector, a Tesla and Volkswagen one wouldn’t be a far-fetched idea. The two companies have executives that are more than willing to show their products to each other, and the two could also help each other in improving their businesses. Volkswagen has been building cars in Germany since 1937. Eighty-five years of market data could help Tesla make an enormous impact on the German market, and Volkswagen could undoubtedly share some hints if Tesla required them.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen has had a very public problem with its MEB infrastructure within the ID family of cars. Tesla, on the other hand, has established itself as the most prominent figure in terms of software and EV tech, and it could always lend a helping hand to Volkswagen, especially considering Musk is more than willing to help electrified fleets come to life. “Tesla is open to licensing software and supplying powertrains & batteries,” Musk said to Teslarati In July. “We’re just trying to accelerate sustainable energy, not crush competitors!
Whether the two companies decide to help, each other remains to be seen. But, the partnership will help both Tesla and Volkswagen out, and in the big picture, enable the acceleration to sustainable energy to occur faster.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly tipped off some details of the Tesla Roadster event with a broadening of information regarding the company’s decision to delay the unveiling for two weeks.
For years, people have speculated about what the Roadster will be capable of. While there have been plenty of things said about what it *could* do, we have not seen or been told by Tesla what it will actually be capable of.
However, over the past few days, Tesla’s weather updates have truly pushed the speculation into Plaid Mode, basically all but confirming the car will have some sort of aerial capability — whether that would be hovering or fully flying remains to be seen — but it definitely seems that it will be able to leave the ground intentionally.
“Because this event can only be held outdoors…”
Tesla posted on Monday that it would delay the Roadster event until October 15, and it indicated that it had to do this because the event “can only be held outdoors.”
With the potential SpaceX collaboration to develop cold-gas thrusters that will help the vehicle go airborne, doing this indoors is probably not a safe, or even plausible, possibility.
Roadster event update
We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule.
New date is October 15. Additional details to…
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 28, 2026
FAA Airspace Restriction
The FAA gave Tesla a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for 10,000 feet above ground level, much higher than the typical 2,000-foot restrictions that are usually placed at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas site.
Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges
Some have said that this massive increase is due to Tesla’s need to restrict unauthorized drone use for spying on the event.
Elon Admits High Winds
“Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks,” Musk said in a post on X yesterday.
Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks https://t.co/dV3ojDh1iT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 30, 2026
A reply reading, “What’s strong wind got to do with a car demo with four grounded wheels?” was directly below Musk’s post, satirically and sarcastically probing for more details.
All signs are pointing toward an aerial demonstration for the Roadster.
Tesla has secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines from Citibank and Wells Fargo in an effort to scale its biggest current projects.
Tesla agreed to a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility from Citibank, it announced on Tuesday. Additionally, it signed a five-year, $8 billion revolving credit facility and a $2 billion, 364-day term credit facility with Wells Fargo.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it “may draw” from the $20 billion delayed-draw term “from time to time” and “no more than ten times during the 18 months following the closing date.” This loan matures on September 29, 2029.
The five-year revolving facility from Wells Fargo will also be accessed by Tesla “from time to time,” and will become due and payable on September 29, 2031. Tesla can request two separate one-year extensions.
On the $2 billion, 364-day revolving loan, it becomes due and payable on September 28, 2027. Tesla can also increase its additional commitments to an additional $4 billion across the Revolving Facilities. This would increase the total facilities to $14 billion. Tesla said it does not plan to utilize any of these loans in 2026.
Tesla plans to utilize the money to help prop up its ambitions to scale its biggest products, each of which is either in early launch phases or still in development. Of course, we’re talking about Cybercab and Semi, which have launched, and Optimus, which is still under heavy development and working toward initial release.
All three Tesla products have one thing in common: they’ve all required Tesla to build new manufacturing lines for them.
For the Semi, Tesla built a brand new factory in Sparks, Nevada, adjacent to the Tesla Gigafactory. For Optimus, Tesla sunset Model S and X production at the Fremont Factory, which brought an end to the two flagship models, thus creating manufacturing space for the humanoid robot. Finally, Cybercab is being built at Gigafactory Texas and officially entered production earlier this year.
The cash will help Tesla bolster its finances for the continuing development of these products. Tesla said that it forecasts its CapEx to be over $25 billion, up from just over $8.5 billion last year. These loans surely help with that spending.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.
Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.
A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
🚨 Elon Musk is currently speaking to the media alongside President Trump after a meeting with AI Leaders in Washington today
Trump says AI is now being called “Super Intelligence” or SI pic.twitter.com/woJJqUVP9B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.
Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.
“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
“Thank you.”@elonmusk catches his own slip after calling the technology “A.I.” while speaking alongside President Trump and other tech leaders, quickly correcting himself to “super… pic.twitter.com/fH7CFileNb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 29, 2026
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.
The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.
Elon Musk weather update tips Tesla Roadster speculation into Plaid Mode
Tesla snags $30B in fresh credit lines for expanding its biggest projects
