BERLIN (Reuters: Tesla (NASDAQ) is working at twice the pace of the industry in many processes, but still has to ramp up complex factories and hire qualified workers to win this race for electric vehicles. This was the statement by Volkswagen’s Chief Executive on Wednesday.

This U.S.-based carmaker was a threat to German electric vehicle production. Its new facility near Berlin had the benefit of having a clean slate and only a few models. Diess stated that this made it more manageable to scale.

Diess stated that Volkswagen, his company was also increasing its speed.

We have a lot to do… lots of momentum. Diess spoke at the Bochum car industry conference.