Volkswagen

While Volkswagen plans eventually to sell the ID.3 in three different range configurations, the 30,000 “First Edition” variants the company is manufacturing initially will feature a 58kWh battery with 100kW DC or 11kW AC fast charging. Using the WLTP standard, the automaker claims that this model will get about 261 miles on a single charge.

The First Edition will be available in three trims, with the basic one set to cost under €40,000 (approximately $45,400). At the top end, the Max trim will cost under €50,000 (about $56,780) but will come with extras like an augmented reality heads-up display, two additional loudspeakers and driver-assist features.

While it’s not slated to make its way to North America, Volkswagen has a lot riding on the ID.3. It’s the car that’s supposed to launch the automaker’s big electrification push. The MEB platform it’s built on will also form the base of its upcoming North American-bound ID.4 EV.

The same outlet had claimed in December that cars rolling off the line wouldn’t have a full software stack.

Not surprisingly, VW objects to any talk of delays. A spokesman told Automotive News Europe that the ID.3 was still on track to debut this summer, although he didn’t confirm or deny the number of bugs.

Whether or not the report is accurate, a lot is riding on the ID.3’s success. It’s VW’s first ground-up electric car design, and should be relatively affordable compared to luxury models from its sibling brands Audi and Porsche. The MEB platform and the software will also be crucial to VW’s future — they’ll form the underpinnings for the US-bound ID.4 and a total of 27 VW group models by the end of 2022. If there are any major setbacks, they could create problems for the company’s entire electrification strategy.

The company has announced a bold aim of one million electric cars produced by the end of 2023, which is two years earlier than the previous target of 2025. By 2025, it aims to have produced 1.5 million electric cars.

These electric vehicles will be led by the ID.3, a compact EV to be first released in Europe which will be available in an affordable basic version for less than $30,000 as well as mid- and long-range versions. Volkswagen says it has received 37,000 pre-orders for the ID.3 to date, and that it will make the platform on which it is built, the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB), available to other manufacturers too which could help to popularize EVs in the mainstream.

Other electric vehicles in the pipeline for VW include MEB-based microbuses, dune buggies and crossovers, although these vehicles don’t have release dates yet.

It’s important to note that manufacturing targets are not the same as actual sales, and that the ID.3 is not expected to make it onto Europe’s roads until summer 2020. So VW’s figures might best be described as an optimistic estimate for the popularity of the vehicle. However, with the announced increase in production, the company is clearly expecting high demand for its EVs in the coming years.

Production at the factory, a joint venture with SAIC, is expected to start in October 2020, and it will have an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. FAW-Volkswagen plans to manufacture another 300,000 ID. model vehicles in Foshan, China.

Volkswageg expects to sell 22 million all-electric cars worldwide by 2028, and more than half of those sales are expected to be in China. “The country plays a crucial part in our electrification strategy, which will pave the way to Volkswagen’s goal of becoming net carbon-neutral by 2050,” said Dr. Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG.

Instead of designing an entirely new chassis, Opel adopted its popular supermini model, which the automaker first introduced way back in 1982, to create its first EV. The new car features a 50kWh battery with 100kW output, which translates to about 136 horsepower in traditional gasoline terms. Opel guarantees the battery pack for eight years and says it can deliver a maximum range of 330km — or approximately 205 miles — per the WLTP standard. With 50kW fast charging, the Corsa-e is able to get 62 miles of range in about 19 minutes. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because the Corsa-e features the same battery (and €29,900 starting price tag) as the Renault Zoe. It also shares the same e-CMP platform as the Peugeot e-208. Those specs position the Corsa-e as a direct competitor to the $30,000 base model Volkswagen ID.3.

In addition to showing off the Corsa-e, Opel detailed its future EV plans. By 2024, the automaker says it plans to transition its entire lineup to electric. With its most popular consumer-facing model now fully electric, next to get the EV treatment is the company’s Vivaro van in 2020, followed by the Combo Life, Combo Cargo and Zafira Life in 2021. Unfortunately, the company’s first EV isn’t coming stateside.

Much like Mercedes’ newer cars, the ID.3 will apparently have natural-language voice commands to handle common tasks. You can say “hello ID,” mention that you’re feeling cold and expect your car to turn up the heat. There isn’t an extensive demo of the functionality, but it’s promising if you hate reaching over to tweak the AC or make a phone call.

VW quickly pulled the clip from its own channels, but we wouldn’t rule out a swift return. The promo video still shows the ID.3’s exterior wrapped in the neon-hued camouflage used to pitch the car in recent months. It wouldn’t be surprising if the video was meant to build up hype in the last weeks before the ID.3’s official reveal at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. If nothing else, it suggests that VW’s first from-scratch EV will feel fresh for the brand, if not out of line with what you get from rivals.