HAMBURG — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess, at the moment underneath heavy hearth from unions over technique, struck an upbeat tone at a latest supervisor assembly on talks over the corporate’s five-year funding plan, together with the way forward for its Wolfsburg plant.

In keeping with a replica of his speech from a gathering during the last week, seen by Reuters, Diess mentioned negotiations with unions have been going nicely, and hailed the corporate’s progress on every little thing from beating U.S. rivals on autonomous driving to boosting gross sales in China.

VW was previous the worst of the availability chain disaster that has hit manufacturing this 12 months, he added, with volumes beginning to rise and subsequent 12 months’s outlook enhancing.

The group’s premium manufacturers have been virtually offered out subsequent 12 months and order books have been full, Diess mentioned — a extra optimistic outlook than the corporate gave at its third-quarter outcomes a month in the past. VW Group consists of the Audi, Porsche and Bentley premium manufacturers.

“You possibly can see that my temper is excellent, as a result of now we have made lots of progress in the previous few weeks,” Diess mentioned.

Diess’s place as VW Group CEO has been hanging by a thread in latest weeks amid tensions over his administration type and electrification technique.

VW’s supervisory board will meet on Dec. 9 to agree on a five-year funding plan. However the lead-up to the assembly has been clouded by uncertainty over whether or not Diess will stay in his place and disagreements over the way forward for the corporate’s house plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, the place employees worry is being left behind within the transition to electrical automobiles.

A call on whether or not Diess will keep or go is anticipated by the tip of this week, two sources near negotiations who declined to be named informed Reuters, with the most recent spherical of discussions on the matter happening final weekend.

On the query of Wolfsburg, administration and the works council have been discussing constructing the VW ID3 full-electric compact hatchback on the plant — “it might definitely make sense to provide such a mannequin,” Diess mentioned.

The plant would change into unrecognisable by 2030, he promised, with modifications underway that might make it “very aggressive to Gruenheide” – Tesla’s new European manufacturing unit close to Berlin which, pending remaining approval, might begin sequence manufacturing in December.

Diess has in latest weeks issued frequent warnings about Tesla’s higher effectivity and pace in comparison with Volkswagen’s, expressing worry that VW will shortly fall behind by itself turf.