If Tesla is the Apple of electric vehicles, VW could be the Samsung

Volkswagen Group laid out big plans on Monday to pass Tesla and becoming the world's largest maker of electric vehicles.

"Let me begin with the obvious: e-mobility has won the race," VW Group CEO Herbert Diess said at the company's Power Day event. "It is the only solution to reduce mobility emissions fast."

Instead of talking about cars, design, or other customer-facing features, however, most of the event was spent concentrating on the heart of electric cars: the battery.

This is because batteries currently make up more than 30 percent of an EV's cost. And with every automaker looking to pivot to EVs, it's not just about getting batteries at the cheapest price possible but also securing enough supply to meet those ambitions.

The pivot will not be cheap. VW announced it plans to build six battery factories across Europe by 2030, which BloombergNEF estimates would cost about $29 billion.

The automaker is also making investments in unifying the design of its battery and in recycling precious metals.

And yet, VW will find it hard to beat Elon Musk.

"Tesla will likely maintain its broad EV leadership," Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, wrote in a report. Even after VW's hours-long presentation Baird still sees Tesla as having the upper hand with regard to batteries.

Venkat Viswanathan, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an EV expert, also thinks Tesla's drivetrains comprising both batteries and electric motors are four or five years ahead of the competition. They offer "the highest driving range for the same battery capacity," he said.

Baird's Kallo gives VW's ambitions high marks -- he is just not convinced Musk will cede pole position. "We view Volkswagen as a potential leader in the 'non-Tesla' portion of the EV market," Kallo wrote. "A non-Tesla EV ecosystem will emerge, similar to the non-Apple ecosystem in smartphones (i.e., Android)."

Apple built an ecosystem that integrates hardware innovations such as processing chips and camera sensors with software lock-ins like the iOS operating system and the App Store. It may have annoyed many users, but Apple has stuck with its proprietary lightning charging cable.

Tesla has done something very similar with EVs by developing its own battery chemistry, electric motors and driver-assistance system. It has also built a supercharging network other cars cannot use (at least not yet).

Google's Android operating system and Samsung Electronics managed to carve out a significant share of the global smartphone market, but Apple became the world's most valuable company by building a dominant brand and ecosystem for which consumers are willing to pay much more.

The conclusion Baird's Kallo reached Monday is similar to one UBS analyst Patrick Hummel came to after his team completed a teardown of VW's ID3. "VW might not be the Apple, but the Samsung of the EV world," he said earlier this month.

Just like Samsung has an edge over Apple with its superior smartphone display, there is one area where VW may be ahead of Tesla. VW has placed a big bet on next-generation lithium ion batteries.

In 2012, VW invested in Silicon Valley startup QuantumScape, which was building solid-state batteries that promised to increase driving range by as much as 50 percent and reduce charging times to 15 minutes. Though QuantumScape's battery will not be in a car before 2025, the company's market value stands at about $23 billion--roughly a sixth of VW's valuation.

While Tesla has many battery innovations under its belt, from novel chemistry to more efficient production methods, it has not said anything about developing solid-state batteries.