Volkswagen will start deliveries of its first standalone battery-powered models in 2020, around the time that Tesla wants to hand over 1 million vehicles a year. So why does the German carmaker think it can stop Elon Musk's car pioneer in its tracks?

What Volkswagen lacks in first-mover advantage, the company can make up in global scale and manufacturing expertise, says Herbert Diess, who oversees the carmaker's namesake brand. VW today is the world's biggest automaker, a long yearned-for status it grabbed from Toyota last year, and Diess wants to claim another crown by making electric vehicles accessible to mass-market buyers, he said in an interview.

"We see Volkswagen as the company that can stop Tesla, because we have abilities Tesla doesn't have today," Diess said in Frankfurt.

Tesla has become the de-facto benchmark for established car producers from Daimler to BMW to VW seeking a larger slice of the electric-auto market. And while founder Elon Musk has captured consumers' appetite with Tesla's Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles, he's been unable to shake questions of whether he can fulfill ambitious production pledges in coming years. That may provide an edge for companies like Volkswagen, which churns out more cars across its dozen brands in two days than Tesla sold in all of 2016.