not coming to America –
But the US will have to wait until late 2020 for the ID.4 Electric Crossover.
FRANKFURT, Germany — On Monday night, on the eve of this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Volkswagen debuted the ID.3 , its new battery electric vehicle. It’s the first BEV to use the company’s new modular electric architecture (called MEB), which will underpin new BEVs from VW as well as sister brands Skoda and Seat. It’s about the size of a VW Golf, and the base model will sell for around € 30, 000. But unfortunately for us, there are no plans to sell this particular BEV in the North American market.
In the wake of the diesel emissions scandal, VW has gone all-in on electrification, as it’s the only way the automaker will be able to meet stringent new European Union CO (2) targets. To that end, the company has developed a flexible new platform for EVs, which in the past few years it’s shown off in a number of concept vehicles, including thegroovy ID Buzzmicrobus andthat wacky ID Buggywe drove last month.
But the ID.3 is the first production vehicle to use the new technology. At launch, the ID.3 — which uses a single rear-mounted (kW) (HP), (Nm) 228 lb-ft) electric motor-generator unit — will feature a 58 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that provides up to (miles) 420 km) of range under the European WLTP testing scheme. In time, there will also be a smaller-battery 45 kWh, 205 – mile ( (km (variant and a) **************************************************************************************************** (-mile) 550 km) 77 kWh version.
Unfortunately, VW did not homologate the ID.3 for the United States or Canada, so there are no plans to bring the car to our shores. Instead, we have to wait until late 2020 for the ID.4, based on the ID Crozz concept, which shares the same MEB parts bin and tool kit but in an American-friendly crossover form factor.
Listing image by Jonathan Gitlin
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