Herbert Diess too distracted by Twitter and Tesla?

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess needs to spend less time posting on social media and more working to resolve the microchip shortage the automaker has struggled with more than rivals BMW and Tesla.

That's the assessment Volkswagen's new works council chief, Daniela Cavallo, gave Diess last week as the executive met with workers at the automaker's Wolfsburg plant.

"You supply us frequently with nice pictures from your trips, but unfortunately still not with semiconductors," Bloomberg News quoted Cavallo as saying.

Cavallo also accused Diess of spending too much time focused on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who dialed into a meeting of Volkswagen executives last month and talked to the officials for more than an hour.

"The fascination that you apparently feel for Mr. Musk and the effort you're making in staying in contact with him — we would welcome if it was the same for the huge challenges the company currently faces," Cavallo said, according to Reuters.

Diess said Tesla is often on his mind because he has to make sure Volkswagen overhauls itself quickly enough to avoid falling behind more agile rivals.

"I'm often being asked why I keep comparing us with Tesla; I know that it's annoying some people," Diess told workers. "But it's my task and that of the entire management to assess the competition correctly, to prepare the group for it and make it future-proof."