Elon Musk takes VW’s electric ID.3 for a spin while in Berlin

Tesla boss Elon Musk visited Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and drove the ID.3 during his visit to Germany last week, it has been reported.

After visiting Tesla’s next electric car factory outside Berlin that is currently under construction, Musk also visited Diess, in a rare meeting of rival car maker CEOs that included taking a test-drive of the German competitor’s first electric car in its ID series.

Musk also had a chance to have a first look at the ID.4 electric SUV, the next vehicle in the series that Volkswagen is pinning its hopes on to compete with Tesla, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

While not Volkswagen’s first electric vehicle (its e-Golf sits at #1 in German EV sales ), the ID.3 is the vanguard of Volkswagen’s electric vehicle “offensive” that it hopes will deliver redemption from its role in the 2015 Dieselgate scandal in which it cheated on emissions testing.

The ID.4 is expected to be revealed at the end of September, in what is shaping up to be, well, an electrifying month for the clean passenger industry that will also include Tesla’s highly anticipated Battery Day and the reveal of the Lucid Air from Saudi-backed Lucid Motors.

Other details of the meeting between Musk and Diess were not forthcoming; and while the meeting was confirmed by Volkswagen to Bloomberg, it was not a public event.

Musk has made no public comments about what he thought of the ID.3, only saying via Twitter of his trip to Germany in which the German government offered full support of the Berlin Gigafactory that is was a “great trip” and that the support is “super appreciated”.

However, it is known that Diess – who is in charge of the world’s third most valuable electric vehicle company after Tesla and Toyota – has great respect for Musk, who has led Tesla from a little known startup a decade ago to one of the world’s most disruptive, and currently the most highly valued – in terms of market cap –  automotive companies.

It is not the first time the two CEOs have met; in November, both were on stage when Musk was in Germany to accept the highly respected “Golden Steering Wheel” automotive award on behalf of Tesla.

At the event, Diess called Musk an “innovator” and a “visionary” and thanked the Tesla CEO for “pioneering, for pulling us, for pushing us.”

The German car boss has also publicly said that he considers Tesla is well ahead of other car makers in terms of autonomous and electric vehicle software, in comments to Reuters in July.

Diess repeated his praise for Musk again on Friday saying that Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory 4 will bring “trend-setting future automotive technology” to Germany.

“Tesla will live up the competition in Germany and accelerates the transformation of our established industry significantly,” he said.

Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory will not only produce Model 3 and Model Y electric cars for the European market.

It will also, as Musk told reporters on Thursday, be the proving ground for a “radically redesigned” Model Y that will see Tesla implement a whole new core technology into the vehicle.

It is known that the Model Y is already utilising groundbreaking automotive construction techniques including a single piece rear casting that Musk says significantly improves production efficiency and weight of the Model Y.