Volkswagen’s planned electric small car for 2027, with a projected base price of around €20,000, will be called ID. Up, not ID.1, according to a Spanish media report. The publication writes that VW has already finalized the model’s name as ID. Up.
The specifications of the new ID. Up are expected to largely match those of the ID. Every1 concept. The new and most affordable electric car from Volkswagen measures 3.88 meters in length and 1.81 meters in width, positioning it between the old e-Up (3.60 meters) and the new ID. Polo (4.05 meters), according to VW.
There has been a plan at VW to join forces with Renault to develop and produce a small sub-€20,000 city car, where the Renault Twingo and the ID. Up would sit on the same platform and be produced in the same factories, but Volkswagen ultimately decided to go its own way, and the plan was ditched.
The ID. Up is set to be manufactured from mid-2027 at VW’s plant in Palmela, Portugal.
Names, no numbers
It became clear around a year ago that Volkswagen no longer wished to name its electric cars using only numbers, as has been the case for the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.7. At the time, the German carmaking giant announced during the IAA in Munich that its new €25,000 electric car would not launch as the ID.2, but as the ID. Polo.
Volkswagen stated it would instead use the names again of its “established bestsellers.” Since then, it has become clear that all new electric models from Volkswagen will once again receive proper names.
The usually well-informed Spanish automotive news website Motor.es now reports that Volkswagen plans to use the name ID. Up for its electric city car, scheduled for launch in autumn 2027, rather than ID.1, as suggested during the presentation of its concept study, ID. Every1, in March 2025. The same stood for the ID. Polo, which had a concept name ID. 2All and was expected to be named ID.2, until the name policy was started.
Up or Lupo?
The name Up is not new, since e-Up was the name of Volkswagen’s first battery-electric city car, which was discontinued in autumn 2023. Volkswagen also offered a conventional ICE model, the VW Up, as its smallest vehicle, and the e-Up was its electric version. With the introduction of a new ID. Up, Volkswagen would revive the naming convention of this established model next year.
According to Motor.es, Volkswagen also considered naming the small electric car ID. Lupo, thereby revisiting the name Lupo (Italian for wolf), which was used for an earlier petrol-powered city car, also VW’s smallest at the time, produced between 1998 and 2005.
Others will follow
With the names Polo and Up confirmed as the model designations for the smallest Volkswagen ID. models, it’s more than logical for Volkswagen to extend this approach to its other electric vehicles.
For instance, the ID.3 successor will receive the name of VW’s most iconic model, the Golf, and the ID.7 will undoubtedly be renamed the ID. Passat. Meanwhile, images of a camouflaged ID. Tiguan have surfaced online; this model is expected to replace the ID.4 and ID.5 soon.
This latest leak of Volkswagen’s affordable electric car model designation has not been officially announced by the VW Group, but was accidentally revealed by the trade union IG Metall in a statement about plant allocations in Emden.
