No they can't. For one, the e-Golf is roughly competitive with the Nissan Leaf but has nothing on the range/performance of a Tesla. VW have been faffing about trying to launch their new ID3 EV for ages (has that launched yet?). Building decent EVs is hard. If the efficiency is not there in the drivetrain, then the car is either too short range or too expensive.
And you need to source batteries. Either gotta build your own huge factory, or squabble with all the other carmakers to source them from the same places as everyone else.
Look at recent efforts by Audi and Porche to make 'tesla killers'. They are barely Tesla ticklers. Maybe they have one strong metric or whatever (track handling for the Porche, charging speed for the Audi) but they aren't really anywhere close in price/range/overall package terms.
Here's a press relase from 2013, when VW declared they would lead the world on EVs by 2018.
September 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Volkswagen Group has set its sights on global market leadership in electric mobility. "We are starting at exactly the right time. We are electrifying all vehicle classes, and therefore have everything we need to make the Volkswagen Group the top automaker in all respects, including electric mobility, by 2018", Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, said on the eve of the 65th International Motor Show in Frankfurt am Main.
Maybe the valuation is a bit steep, sure. But there aren't many reasonable arguments left for the company going under, apart from perhaps investment overextension due to some future initiative, or some magical and incredible accounting fraud.
And, you can definitely test drive a Tesla, if there's a showroom place nearby.
Problem is, now the rest of the industry is 10 years behind. They were hoping to just buy this tech from their suppliers, but so is everyone else. All profit gone in a bidding war. Making your own requires double-digit billions of investments (OK, plausible) and 10 years lead time. Let's be super charitable and say 5 due to the existence proof and leaky personnel. Now they've got to catch up while their newly equal-sized competitor eats their lunch.
Classic innovator's dilemma, and it's as obvious today as it was in 2013. Probably more.
Technically charges at 350kW, but good luck finding more than a 50kW CHAdeMO along your route. Especially during congested hours. Porche claims intention to install 800 of the fastest charging points globally by 2020, but after years of dragging feet, onus is on them to prove it.
This is what most casual observers fail to get. It's not about the specs of the cars themselves, it's about thousands of small details in production & distribution infrastructure, charging technology and UX that go deeper than just paying a subcontractor to slap it on top.
Many manufacturers can, with a proper effort, make something that seems convincing at a casual glance. But creating a properly competitive product is hard and will take years. Along with a cultural change that I think almost none will mange.
On top of that, you really don't want to drive the car down to 0% charge for obvious reasons so you want to give yourself at least a 5-10% cushion to your destination (aka you never get below that threshold), so slice another 5-10% off the car's useful range.
Then of course the battery natural degrades after a lot of charge/discharge cycles. I love my model 3 long range and this is why other car companies producing EVs under 300 mile range for the same price as a tesla are a joke.
I doubt it.