VW’s ID.2 will be a sub €25k car, further electrification accelerated

Volkswagen has just presented the ID.2all concept. The long-expected low-cost ID.2 also previews VW’s new design language. The series ID.2. scheduled for 2025 will be “as spacious as a Golf, as inexpensive as a Polo”. The target price lies below €25 000. At the same time, VW announces it will further accelerate its electrification strategy.

The German carmaker showed the ID at the IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich. Life with retro references to the Golf I, an icon. Yet it became soon apparent that the concept by then head of design Jozef Kaban didn’t sit well with the VW management under Oliver Blume (Group) and Thomas Schäfer (Brand). So tonight, VW showed a completely new design by Kaban’s successor Andreas Mindt.

Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars: “We are transforming the company rapidly and fundamentally, with the clear objective of making Volkswagen a genuine ‘Love Brand’. The ID. 2all shows where we want to take the brand: close to the customer, with top technologies and a fantastic design. We are implementing the transformation at pace to bring electric mobility to the masses.”

New electric Polo

Externally, the ID.2all study has little in common with the ID. Life. In the press release, VW speaks of a “friendly face”. The rest of the front looks like a mixture of the usual ID. front and a conventional small car.

Regarding technology, the ID.2all is a front-wheel drive, which again requires a slightly larger motor compartment than the ID.3, contributing to a more traditional look. You could almost think there’s a new Polo there.

The new design chief Mindt explains: this was a conscious decision. “The most important value for Volkswagen design is stability.” In his view, this includes value stability, form stability, reliability, and recognizability.

“A second central core of the brand is likeability,” explains the designer, referring to models such as the original Beetle and VW Bus and the modern versions of the Beetle and the ID. Buzz.

However, Mindt has not wholly abandoned the Golf I connection:  in the new design, we see the C-pillar of the first Golf, reiterated in all successors. The ID. 2all is the first Volkswagen with a new interpretation of this signature. “The C-pillar is the backbone of the Volkswagen design. In the ID.2all, the stability of the C-pillar initially flows from the backbone into the side body elements,” explains Mindt.

One of the consequences is that the ID.2all deliberately dispenses with a pronounced shoulder section, a popular trend in contemporary car design. According to VW, this gives the entire flank a stronger volume and a high degree of independence.

Front-wheel drive

There is another parallel between the ID.2all and the ID. Life from 2021. The ID. 2all will utilize the latest evolutionary stage of the modular e-drive kit (MEB). “The ID. 2all will be the first MEB vehicle with front-wheel drive. We are exploiting the great flexibility offered by our modular electric drive (MEB) platform and will set new standards in terms of technology and everyday usability with the MEB Entry platform,” says Kai Grünitz, Board Member for Technical Development.

VW states in the announcement it will introduce a “particularly efficient drive, battery, and charging technology”. The critical data with the 166 kW front-wheel drive, the standard sprint to 100 kph in less than seven seconds, and the range of up to 450 kilometers, according to WLTP, are very similar to the earlier specifications for the ID. Life. VW does not mention a battery size for the ID.2all yet, but 57 kWh was specified in 2021.

Something more important than the size: the battery is supposed to be able to be charged from 10 to 80% in just 20 minutes. If we take the 57 kWh mentioned as the net energy content, 40 kWh will be charged in this short time-lapse. Transferring this energy in 20 minutes requires an average of 120 kW of charging power.

An ID.3 Pro with 58 kWh net only reaches this 120 kW at the peak. The ID.3 needs 35 minutes or an average of 70 kW for the standard charging process. Should VW bring this almost doubled charging performance into series production for a car targeted under €25 000, it would be an enormous step forward in this vehicle class.

Given this information on the charging power, which cells are used remains to be seen. Maybe it isn’t LFP cells, as former VW Group boss Herbert Diess had promised for the smallest EV.

Small but spacious

With a length of 4,05 meters, the ID.2all is in the small car segment and keeps enough distance upward from the ID.3. The small BEV is also 1,81 m wide and 1,53 m tall. At 2,60 m, the wheelbase is 5 centimeters longer than the Polo, which is 2,5 cm longer.

The longer wheelbase and the flat interior floor above the battery are supposed to translate into ample space. VW states a cargo space between 490 and 1 330 liter exceeds that of the current Golf 8. However, the 490 liters include not only the trunk; 50 liters are allotted to a storage compartment under the rear seat, where the VW designers propose storing the charging cable. The current study does not have a frunk like the ID. Life had.

Instead, the ID.2all offers a large cuboid storage compartment under the trunk floor. The press photos show that two beer crates and a hand luggage trolley can be stowed there. The storage compartment is located between the rear wheels.  This is only possible when there is no space-consuming multi-link rear axle.

A more conventional operating concept

Concerning the information Volkswagen has given on the rest of the interior, one has to wait and see what is included in the €25 000 version and what will only be available in higher trims. For example, a large panoramic roof, electric massage seats, a head-up display, a 10,9-inch cockpit display, and a 12,9-inch infotainment touchscreen with a new menu structure are listed but surely won’t be all included in the basic list price.

On the center console, another rotary pushbutton controls “other vehicle functions”, reminiscing the iDrive introduced by BMW and much copied ever since. The new multifunction steering wheel is “self-explanatory”, says VW: “Two rotary rollers on the left and right and two buttons each, that’s it.”

So VW has listened to the criticisms – illuminated buttons are replacing the non-illuminated touch sliders, and rotary rollers are replacing the touch elements on the steering wheel. The criticized menu structure is being revised.

“We are transferring the typical Volkswagen virtues to the new world of mobility: top quality and workmanship, outstanding software and digital services with genuine added value,” says Imelda Labbé, Brand Director Sales, Marketing and After Sales. “The focus here is always on the needs and requirements of our customers.”

Development Director Grünitz puts it like this: “The production version of the ID.2all will be a fully-fledged electric car for every day of the year. A typical Volkswagen. With enough space and a long range to easily reach its destination even on the long haul,” says the manager. “Thanks to the highly variable MEB, our customers will be able to enjoy state-of-the-art technology in the process, even in the price range of around 25 000 euros. Technology at affordable prices. That is exactly our claim.”

Increased sales targets for BEVs

At the same time, the VW brand has increased its electric car sales targets in Europe and North America. In Europe, up to 80% of the cars sold by VW are to be BEVs by 2030 instead of the previously planned 7%; in North America, a BEV share of 55% is planned by then – instead of the previous 50%.

To ensure that eight out of ten new Volkswagens are battery-electric by 2030, the Wolfsburg brand wants to launch ten new BEV models by 2026. Included in those ten are also further evolutions of existing models.

“In the past year, we successfully steered Volkswagen through difficult operational waters while at the same time doing our homework strategically,” VW CEO Schäfer concluded. “The company is well positioned for the decade of transformation, and we are implementing our strategy swiftly and consistently.”