VW is seen catching up to Tesla in ID.3 electric car teardown

VW’s MEB electric vehicle platform is getting a stamp of approval from UBS in their teardown of the VW ID.3 electric car.

The German automaker is seen catching up to Tesla in EV technology.

By focusing solely on all-electric vehicles all the way back to the early 2000s, Tesla has managed to build a significant lead in electric vehicle technology as more legacy automakers only started taking battery-electric vehicles seriously in the last few years.

This lead has been confirmed by several third-party teardowns of Tesla vehicles over the years.

Now, UBS is out with a teardown of a VW ID.3, the first all-electric car built on Volkswagen’s MEB platform, and they were impressed.

They wrote:

“The analysis of the ID.3 shows that Volkswagen has developed a pure electric platform which is cutting-edge. This enables the group to offer attractive electric vehicles (BEVs) across the entire product range, and to achieve positive earnings (EBIT),”

Bloomberg, who got access to the teardown report, reported that UBS believes that Volkswagen’s EVs are becoming cost competitive with Tesla:

The deep dive into the ID.3 by UBS Group AG analysts found the platform underpinning VW’s EV models will be fully cost competitive with Tesla and boast best-in-class energy density and efficiency. Analysts led by Patrick Hummel called the car “the most credible EV effort by any legacy auto company so far.”

VW also shared some highlights from the study:

• The MEB platform on which the Volkswagen electric offensive is built is fully cost-competitive with US electric pioneer Tesla.
• Volkswagen is achieving peak performance in terms of efficiency, scalability, and the energy density of its batteries.
• When it comes to battery cell costs, the Volkswagen ID.3 is among the top 3 worldwide at around USD 100 per kilowatt-hour.
• Electric cars from leading manufacturers such as Volkswagen may attain the level of today’s combustion models in terms of costs and profit margins by 2025.
• In terms of the software platform and ecosystem, Volkswagen is currently still behind Tesla – however, Volkswagen is in pole position among the other established car manufacturers.

The report helped boost Volkswagen’s valuation back over $100 million euros – something that hasn’t happened since the Dieselgate scandal.