VW ID 4 EV SUV closes on launch
The Volkswagen ID 4 electric SUV has commenced production in Germany weeks ahead of its late September global launch.
One of the most important EVs of 2020, VW’s first electric SUV will on-sale within months in Europe, the USA and China.
Australia? Well we’ll be waiting a little longer than that. If we see the ID 4 in 2022 that will be a good result.
When it does get here it should be the first model in VW’s massive EV rollout we see, as the ID 3 compact hatchback isn’t a priority because of the local love for SUVs.
Like the ID 3, which is already on sale in Europe, the ID 4 is based on Volkswagen Group’s dedicated MEB EV architecture.
Many other EVs will spin off MEB from other VW Group brands, including the Skoda version of the ID 4, the Enyaq iV, which is revealed on September 1.
That too should lob on these shore in 2022 if all goes well, although it still hasn’t been officially confirmed for local sale.
The ID 4 will initially be launched with rear-wheel drive, while an electric all-wheel drive version will be added a later date.
Three lithium-ion battery choices will be offered – 45kWh, 58kWh and range-topping 77kWh. The biggest and most expensive battery offers a maximum claimed range of around 500km (WLTP) on a full battery charge.
VW says the ID 4’s 0.28 coefficient of drag and scalable battery architecture aid both its performance and interior space efficiency.
While there’s been a series of orchestrated teasers heading up to ID 4’s launch, the best indication of what it will look like has come courtesy of a leak out of the Chinese ministry of information and technology in June.
Vital statistics were also leaked, including exterior dimensions that make it roughly the size of Australia’s top-selling SUV, the Toyota RAV4 – at 4592mm long and 1852mm wide. Expect more space inside thanks to the packaging benefits of an EV.
Volkswagen Group has committed to spending 33 billion Euros ($54.5 billion) on e-mobility out to 2024. It is expecting to build 1.5 million electric cars in 2025. It is also aiming for complete carbon neutrality by 2050.
VW board member for e-mobility, Thomas Ulbrich, said the ID 4 hit its production start-up date at Zwickau in Germany despite the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Given the major societal challenges of recent months, the successful start of ID 4 series production is an exceptional achievement,” he said.
“The second model in the VW EV family is already rolling off the assembly line where, only recently, ICEs were still being built.”
Zwickau, in Saxony, is Volkswagen’s first large car manufacturing plant to be converted totally to e-mobility. Achieved at a cost of 1.2 billion Euros ($2 billion), it is forecast to produce 300,000 vehicles in 2021. That should make it the largest EV plant in Europe.
ID 4 pre-production has already started in Anting, China, and is scheduled to get underway in Chattanooga, USA, in 2022.
