Volkswagen has shown a design for the small electric car, with which the group’s core brand wants to expand its ID series downwards. The car (working title “ID.2all”) should be launched by 2026, be about the size of a current VW Polo and be produced in Spain. The series version for the European home market is expected to be fully developed by 2025, said brand boss Thomas Schäfer on Wednesday evening at the presentation of the study in Hamburg. In the basic version, the ID.2 should cost less than 25,000 euros, and the range should be up to 450 kilometers.
Climate protectors have long been demanding that not only expensive vehicles be equipped with alternative drives. So far, VW has also tended to rely on medium-sized SUVs or sedans for its new E series – the entry-level model was the ID.3, which falls into the compact class and is comparable to the Golf. “We are accelerating the transformation in order to spread e-mobility,” explained Schäfer.
An even smaller electric car is also in the pipeline at Volkswagen’s main division. “We also have to take care of vehicles under 20,000 euros,” said Schäfer. This will be the “next big challenge”. There was criticism, for example, because VW is probably phasing out the electric version of the up in the mini segment.
The presented concept car should be of fundamental importance for the ID series. In terms of design, it also shows “where Volkswagen is headed overall,” says Schäfer. Chief Development Officer Kai Grünitz pointed to a revised version of the current electric platform MEB (“MEB Entry”), which will go into series production later. This should enable standardization and cost advantages in the production of small models, too, the profit margins here are significantly narrower than with larger cars: “Thanks to the economies of scale of the MEB, we are able to integrate technologies from the higher classes at low cost.”
By 2030, VW wants to increase the proportion of pure electric cars in Europe to at least 80 percent, and by 2026 there will be ten electric models. The ID.2 should also have a system for partially automated driving.
More: Ex-boss Herbert Diess earns record salary after leaving