VW is working "intensively" on affordable e-cars such as ID.2 and ID.1

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Volkswagen brand boss Thomas Schäfer spoke about future e-car models that will finally be available at lower prices and explained why vehicles like the good old Polo could be phased out sooner than many think.

Across all models - from the compact electric ID.3 to the high-legged SUVs and crossovers ID.4, ID.5 and ID.6 to the ID. Buzz electric car - VW has now broken the 500,000 vehicle delivery mark. In the case of the ID. Buzz, the share of the commercial vehicle variant Cargo is a good 50 per cent, which is higher than expected. For 2023, both versions of the E-Bulli together are expected to be produced more than 100,000 times.

The ID. Buzz is currently the most expensive electric Wolfsburg. What is missing from the portfolio is an affordable entry-level electric vehicle below ID.3, which costs at least 38,000 euros. VW recently announced a significantly cheaper model for 2025. Should commodity prices stabilise, the targeted price of fewer than 25,000 euros for the ID.2 could be maintained, Schäfer said. "But that cannot be the end of the line," the Volkswagen boss added in an interview with Motor1. "We need something below that". This is "economically difficult at the moment, but not unsolvable."

VW's smallest electric car, which is likely to be called the ID.1, is a global car so it is also interesting for a broad range of customers in China, India and South America. But Schäfer says the car is not intended to be a cut-price car: "We don't want to compromise on safety or on a range that nobody can use anymore," he says. If we work with 100 kilometres, that's nonsense." VW is already working "intensively" on the vehicle, the brand's CEO said.

Schäfer hinted that VW could soon, and possibly much sooner than prospective buyers assumed, no longer have small cars with combustion engines; due to the stricter Euro 7 emissions standard: "If Euro 7 comes as we have heard, then vehicles like the Polo and in this class are no longer possible at all," said the manager. All the more reason to bring e-cars like ID.2 and ID.1 onto the road as soon as possible. "All electric," Schäfer says.