Volkswagen ID.3 confirmed for Oz

The Volkswagen ID.3 electric hatchback is locked in for Australia – but not until 2024.

And the rear-drive five-door hatch could be priced below $50,000 in what would be a coup for the fast-growing EV market in Australia.

Volkswagen Australia head of product for passenger vehicles, Michelle Rowney, confirmed the ID.3 – Europe’s top-selling EV last month – would arrive in Australia soon after the planned arrival of the ID.4 and ID.5 mid-size electric SUVs in late 2023.

That means the Volkswagen ID.3, which was revealed more than three years ago at the 2019 Frankfurt motor show, won’t arrive here until at least early 2024 – by which time it will be almost five years old, so it’s likely Aussies will receive a facelifted version that’s yet to be revealed.

“ID.3 will closely follow [ID.4 and ID.5),” said Rowney, with another Volkswagen executive adding that the ID.3’s local arrival is “going to be sooner than we thought”.

As the smallest and most affordable of Volkswagen’s existing ID electric car family (at least until the production version of the ID.Life concept emerges, wearing either ID.1 or ID.2 badges), the ID.3 is a logical electric alternative to the German brand’s popular Golf.

The Volkswagen ID.3 is available in a range of battery and performance configurations, but it’s not yet known which version will initially make its way Down Under.

However, given the focus on highly-specified models across Volkswagen’s Australian range – a theme set to be continued with the ID.4 and ID.5 – it makes sense that we’d initially see versions with the larger of the battery packs and a generous level of equipment.

Even so, the ID.3 could also be cheaper than some are expecting, as part of Volkswagen’s plan to sell more EVs than Tesla in Australia within five years.

Rowney confirmed it would be priced well below $60,000 and that it could even slide in below $50K.

“There could be a way [the price] would start with a 4. We would like it to,” she says.

If that was the case – keeping in mind drive-away pricing would likely be on top of that – the ID.3 would be among the cheapest of the EVs on the market.

The MG ZS small electric SUV is currently the most affordable EV on the market, priced from $44,990 drive-away, which is about $2000 cheaper than the conceptually similar BYD Atto 3, which also hails from China.

Rather than a quirky model sitting on the fringes of the Volkswagen range, however, Rowney said the brand’s imminent EV arrivals – including the ID.3 – would be gunning for volume.

“The way we’re approaching our planning for EV is as a volume brand,” she said.

“Just as though we would spec and price a Tiguan we make sure that we’re meeting the needs of all our customers in terms of the [model] range. We want to take that same approach with our EV planning too.”

All of which could put added pressure on the Golf hatch, which was once a dominant seller for the brand but like so many small hatchbacks has succumbed to the SUV onslaught.

But the ID.3 name will also broaden beyond its current hatchback roots.

Last week Volkswagen confirmed there would soon be an SUV version of the ID.3, expected to be called ID X and designed to fill the void between the ID.3 hatch and the ID.4.

Volkswagen Australia says is it “working with the factory on it”, but that it is not yet locked in for local release.

“We’re an SUV market here, so anything SUV and EV we are fighting for it,” said Rowney.

Convertible and hotter GTX-badged versions of the ID.3 are also expected to eventuate, giving Volkswagen Australia plenty of options.

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