Volkswagen has radically changed its plans for the upcoming ID. 2 electric sedan and is providing an entirely new external and internal design, which will look like a concept car in Europe next month.
Expected to arrive in dealerships in 2025 with a target value of €22,500 (AU€34,750), the five-seater sedan may also bring the iconic Volkswagen Golf badge.
Experts at Volkswagen’s world headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, say a hatchback variant of the Golf GTI has also been discussed in the recent internal strategy for the new electric model.
The ID. 2 is expected to be the first Volkswagen based on the new MEB-Plus platform, an updated edition of the MEB electric car design widely used today, but equipped with new lithium-iron phosphate “prismatic” battery cells, which provide charging. speeds between 175kW and 200kW, among other novelties.
MORE: The Volkswagen Golf is about to go electric
Instead of the debatable SUV plans anticipated through the concept ID. Life at the 2020 Munich Motor Show, the much-revised Volkswagen ID. 2 will get a more traditional hatchback flavor developed through a team of designers led by Volkswagen’s new design chief, Andreas. Mind.
The change in design direction comes after the new CEO of the Volkswagen brand, Thomas Schäfer, rejected the proposed SUV style of the ID. 2, which is attributed to Mindt’s predecessor, Jozef Kaban.
After months of internal debate over the design of the next high-priced electric sedan, Mr. Kaban accepted a new position in Volkswagen’s logo design operations as Creative Art Director.
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The resolution to give the ID. 2 an all-new look comes after Cupra, Volkswagen’s functionality subsidiary, unveiled its unique styling edition of its new electric vehicle, the hatchback-shaped UrbanRebel.
The two styles are expected to be produced side by side at the Martorell plant of Cupra’s parent company Seat, near Barcelona, Spain, as an oblique replacement for the Volkswagen e-Up and Seat Mii. A third Skoda style is also expected to arrive. at a later date.
A Volkswagen source familiar with early proposals for the redesigned ID. 2 sedan said the vehicle sat in terms of length and style between the existing Polo City sedan and the small Golf sedan, with a total duration of “around 4250mm. “
With a short hood and flat floor, the VW ID. 2 would be offering “the type of interior area of models regularly from a higher segment” than the VW Golf.
“We have a wonderful culture and product strength in this segment. This is a total new beginning, but a logical continuation of what Volkswagen has excelled at in the past, albeit with electric propulsion,” the VW source told Drive.
First of all, the Volkswagen ID. 2 is expected to be presented only as a single-engine front-wheel drive engine. However, the MEB-Plus platform will eventually include two-motor and all-wheel drive models.
“It will be soft by electric car standards, between 1600 and 1700kg,” VW’s source told Drive.
Volkswagen’s plan to use Golf’s call for the production edition of the ID. 2 electric sedan was first discussed via M. Schäfer at the Los Angeles Auto Show in October 2022.
At the time, he said: “The so-called Golf has great value. The popularity you get in clinics [clients], other people totally understand what we’re talking about. Therefore, turning the call into something absolutely different is meaningless. “
The first advice was that the Golf call could be reserved for a remodeled edition of the ID. 3. However, this is denied by Volkswagen sources, who claim that “the true values of the Golf lie in a car of the length of the ID. . 2”.
It remains to be seen whether it keeps the ID. It remains to be seen the identity of other Volkswagen electric models. One put to Drive is called ID. Le golf.
In important development, Schäfer has also given the green light to the return of the GTI badge on Volkswagen electric models. There are plans to update the GTX badge that comes with the ID. 4 in 2020.
“The GTX is dead,” a senior VW source told Drive. “A resolution has already been made to update it with the classic GTI name, and it is being for the ID. 2. “
A front-wheel-drive electric-functionality car called GTI mimics the philosophy of the original gasoline-powered Golf GTI introduced in 1976, experts say.
While a final decision on a GTI edition of the ID. 2 has not yet been made, there are indications that a separate electric hatchback concept could be unveiled at Volkswagen’s annual fan festival and Wӧrthersee GTI engine exhibition in Austria in May 2023, or the planned ID. fan Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, in September 2023.
The Cupra UrbanRebel unveiled in June 2022 would provide a clue about the process Volkswagen will take with the electric Golf GTI, according to corporate experts.
Equipped with a front-mounted electric motor, the toughest edition of the upcoming Cupra style is intended to deliver 161 kW and a 0 to 100 km/h time of 6. 9 seconds.
In comparison, the existing VW Golf GTI (with a 2. 0-litre turbocharged petrol engine with an output of 180 kW) boasts official acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 6. 2 seconds.
Meanwhile, the revival of the VW ID. 2 would also adopt a new interior look with a cabin that aims to offer space to that of today’s VW Golf.
They come with the source of a rotary dial controller, a progression that will first appear on the third-generation Volkswagen Tiguan due later this year, Drive reported.
The rotary dial on the center console, the first in a Volkswagen style, is designed to complement touchscreen controls and is expected to update the touchscreen “slider” that was introduced on the ID. 3 in 2020.
The sweeping changes to the upcoming VW ID. 2 are part of a “complete reset” of Volkswagen’s logo and its new electric car strategy management.
Along with the redesign of the ID. 2, Volkswagen’s new CEO also commissioned a complete overhaul of the company’s Trinity project, a new style of exhibition whose progression began under the guise of former Volkswagen CEO Hebert Diess.
Schäfer reportedly has reservations about Project Trinity’s liftback-style sedan design. Now, Volkswagen designers are reportedly looking for this car in an SUV to compete with the Tesla Model Y.
The adjustments to the upcoming VW ID. 2 and Trinity’s assignment come as Mr. Schäfer, who was once guilty of Volkswagen’s operations in South Africa before becoming Skoda’s chairman and then being appointed Volkswagen chief executive, is building one more product. He guided corporate culture at Volkswagen than his predecessor, Mr. Diess, who was known for his obsession with reducing prices and product profitability.
“It’s a balance, but at the end of the day, it’s the product we’re judged by,” a Volkswagen member told Drive. “With adjustments underway, we need to regain a strong position with new cars that reflect Volkswagen’s classic qualities, and with names that will be familiar to longtime consumers and other new car buyers. “
Meanwhile, the previous hypothesis suggested Volkswagen was preparing to produce the ID. 2 in China at a plant operated in conjunction with its joint venture spouse Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC), denied by the company’s head of Chinese operations, the former CEO of the Volkswagen brand. . , Ralf Brandstätter.
Speaking to Chinese media earlier this month, Brandstätter said: “Volkswagen plans to launch the ID. 7 sedan in China, as well as a new styling under the ID. 4,” adding: “It possibly wouldn’t be the ID. 2”.
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European correspondent
Kable is one of Europe’s leading automotive journalists. The Australian expat lives in Germany and is one of the toughest executives in the world in speed dialing.