Tesla offered Herbert Diess CEO job in 2015 - Business Insider

FRANKFURT, April 13 (Reuters) - Tesla offered Herbert Diess the job of chief executive in 2015 before he left BMW for Volkswagen, Business Insider reported on Tuesday, without citing where it obtained the information.

The report said that Tesla had already sent a contract to Diess - an admirer of the U.S. electric carmaker and its boss Elon Musk - who instead joined Volkswagen as a management board member on July 1, 2015 after serving as board member in charge of production at BMW.

Diess became Volkswagen's chief executive in April 2018.

A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to comment. A spokesman for Tesla in Germany had no immediate comment.

The news comes as Volkswagen emerges as the main contender to Tesla for global electric vehicle supremacy, underscored by a raft of announcements, including a Power Day, that has provided a jolt to its share price.

Volkswagen, which earlier on Tuesday struck a wage deal with nearly a fifth of its workers, has seen its share price rise by more than half since the beginning of the year, giving it a market capitalisation of 136 billion euros ($162 billion). ($1 = 0.8412 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Susan Fenton)