Category Archives: ID.3

Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)

Frankfurt Motor Show: Love, hate and electric cars

Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, Volkswagen

I have a love-hate relationship with international motor shows such as this week’s extravaganza in Frankfurt.

On the one hand, if you like cars, if you have a single drop of petrol in your veins, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the array of awesome engineering on display. And that of course is the general idea.

Manufacturers spend huge sums developing their latest four-wheeled fantasies, laden with up-to-the-minute electronic gizmos, which apparently will do everything for you except brush your teeth. They want you to be impressed.

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For many years now, the dominant themes have been electrification and automation.

At the major European shows in Frankfurt, Geneva and Paris there’s been endless speculative talk about the need to develop battery powered cars, and about how we’ll live with self-driving machines.

But here in Frankfurt, what used to be speculation is becoming reality. The launch of Volkswagen’s ID.3 is being seen as a landmark moment. Not because it looks particularly flashy or exotic – it doesn’t – but because this is the first purpose-built electric car the German giant has produced, the first fruit of a €30bn (£27bn) investment programme, designed to turn the company into a market leader in electric cars.

Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)
Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)

There’s an irony here, of course. Four years ago, Volkswagen was a very different company. It was during the 2015 show in Frankfurt that the US environmental authorities dropped their bombshell, accusing the German company of deliberately manipulating emissions tests. Executive heads rolled, billions of dollars in fines were paid, and the company embarked on a very different corporate strategy.

Read more: BBC

Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)

Volkswagen reveals its mass-market ID.3, an electric car with up to 341 miles of range

Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, Volkswagen

Volkswagen introduced Monday the ID.3, the first model in its new all-electric ID brand and the beginning of the automaker’s ambitious plan to sell 1 million EVs annually by 2025.

The ID.3 debut, which is ahead of the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt, is an important milestone for Volkswagen. The company upended its entire business strategy in the wake of the diesel emissions cheating scandal that erupted in September 2015. Now, four years later, VW is starting to show more than just concept vehicles for its newly imagined electric, connected and carbon-neutral brand.

Information about the ID.3, which was unveiled alongside a new VW logo and brand design, has trickled out for months now. Monday’s reveal finally fills in some much-needed details on the interior, battery, infotainment and driver assistance systems.

Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)
Volkswagen ID.3 electric car (Image: Volkswagen.com)

The upshot: Everything about the ID.3, from its size and styling to its battery range and pricing, is aiming for the mass-market category.

The electric hatchback is similar in size to the VW Golf. But this is no VW Golf. The aim here, and one Volkswagen just might have achieved, was to signal the beginning of a new brand.

Numerous details in the special edition version of the ID.3, including a panorama tilting glass roof edged in black and interactive LED headlights that have “eyelids” that flutter when the driver approaches the parked vehicle, help drive the future-is-here point home.

The ID.3 will only be sold in Europe and have a starting price under €30,000 (about $33,000). North America’s first chance at an all-electric VW will be the ID Crozz, which is coming to the U.S. at the end of 2020.

Read more: Tech Crunch

VW ID.3 electric car in camouflage wrap (Image: Volkswagen)

VW received 10,000 ID.3 orders in the first 24 hours

Electric Cars, ID.3, News, Reviews and Comment, Volkswagen

Volkswagen’s electric people’s car looks like it could be a huge success

It was a bold statement from Volkswagen to claim that the ID.3 electric car would represent just the third chapter in the company’s long history. After all, the first two were rather successful – the original Beetle and then all generations of the Golf sold rather well didn’t they?

Still, if pre-orders are anything to go by, it seems as though the newly-named ID.3 could live up to that claim. Within 24 hours of opening up sales earlier this week, VW received a staggering 10,000 pre-orders.

VW ID.3 electric car in camouflage wrap (Image: Volkswagen)
VW ID.3 electric car in camouflage wrap (Image: Volkswagen)

All of those orders were for the 1st Edition spec, which includes the mid-spec battery and a range of over 260 miles at a cost of less than €40,000. Unfortunately, the camo-wrap above isn’t an option – we’ll see the final product at the Frankfurt motor show later this year.

Read more: Top Gear