VW's electric future: Is the ID.Life not coming after all?
Small electric cars are a big hit. Because they make it easier to get started with electromobility, are affordable and make a lot of sense, especially in urban areas with good charging infrastructure. These are reasons why Volkswagen's e-up! has become such a sales hit that the company in Lower Saxony had to pull the emergency brake on orders. Above all to be able to process existing orders. Now the success story continues: the fully electric small car can be ordered again. To date, it has been sold more than 80,000 times worldwide and will be the second most registered all-electric vehicle in Germany in 2021. Logically, a successor has to come along at some point ...
The expansion of the ID. family into the small car segment at prices starting at 20,000 euros is another important step for VW towards fully electrified mobility. It was already clear at the IAA that the crowd-puller ID. Life is an oversubscribed study and will not come in exactly this form - classic PR. Even then, Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, explained: "The ID.Life is our vision of next-generation urban all-electric mobility. The study gives a first preview of an ID. model in the small car segment in the price range of around 20,000 euros, which we will launch in 2025. This will make electric mobility accessible to even more people."
Read correctly: "(...) the first preview of an ID. model", according to the statement from September 2021. Admittedly: The ID.Life would have been cool. However, VW must also design the car in such a way that it meets the safety-relevant specifications - examples: Crash safety, pedestrian protection, etc... The ID.Life is and remains a concept car that will probably be more of a harbinger of the e-car that is actually to come. Presumably, the design of the next model will be - unsurprisingly - more appealing to the masses. Rumour has it that the name will also fit better into the VW nomenclature. On the industry website Automobilwoche.de there is already talk of a Polo-like ID.2 and an ID.2 X on the same basis. The latter could be a small E-SUV in the style of the T-Cross, they say. On Focus.de, on the other hand, there is talk of an ID.1, which is to make its debut as early as next year. So it remains exciting ...
70 new electric models by 2028
It is quite certain that those small car models will be based on a smaller version of the modular e-drive system (MEB) specially developed for the small car segment and will be equipped with front-wheel drive for the first time. Whether and in what form the fabulous performance data of the ID. Life (234 hp, 0 - 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds, 57 kWh, 400 km range) will correspond to the reality that can only be speculated so far. By way of comparison: the current e-up! has 83 hp and a range of around 250 kilometres.
By 2030, Volkswagen wants to increase the share of pure e-models in total vehicle sales in Europe to at least 70 per cent and in North America and China to at least 50 per cent. The aim is to become a leading supplier of electric mobility. After ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and ID. Buzz, 70 new e-models are to roll off Volkswagen production lines by 2028. These will soon include the all-electric successor to the Passat saloon, which according to VW boss Herbert Diess will be called ID.6 (study: ID.Vizzion) here in Germany. ID.6? Wait a minute ... Isn't that the name of Volkswagen's extra-large electric SUV in China? That's right. So we assume that there will be changes to the actual model name - anything else would be confusing. Incidentally, VW is said to have already legally secured the name "ID.7", reports Autozeitung. This should come in the next two years in the form of an E station wagon and is so far better known as "ID. Space Vizzion". VW's prestige project "Trinity" (2026) is also likely to be particularly interesting: an electric flagship with extensive robot functions. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Volkswagen is planning a new plant in Wolfsburg for this purpose. In the medium term, this plant will also produce new, more sustainable electric cars - with new architecture, level 4 autonomy and completely new production approaches.