VW's electrification efforts are primarily not about competing with Tesla in the US, but about not losing its 24% market share in Europe, where it has multiple non-premium brands, such as Seat and Škoda.
A lot of their electrification efforts are penance for dieselgate.
Electrification is a huge thing in the European market after stricter emission standards and additional taxes for car buyers were introduced, and has nothing to do with dieselgate.
and they really need to have low average emissions... that's clearly defined goal which needs to be fulfilled.