Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV starts production

Volkswagen’s first fully electric SUV, the ID.4, has started production in Germany ahead of its global reveal in late September.

Expected on sale in Europe, China and the USA within months, the all-new Volkswagen ID.4 is the second VW-branded electric model to start assembly following on from the ID.3 hatchback. Both are based on the Volkswagen Group’s dedicated EV architecture called MEB.

A plethora of other EVs will spin off MEB from other Volkswagen Group brands, including the Skoda version of the ID.4, the Enyaq iV, which will be revealed on September 1.

Aussie arrival timing for Volkswagen’s Tesla Model Y fighter has been clouded by the COVID crisis. It was due to be the first ID model sold here as soon as next year, but Volkswagen’s local division is now only saying it hopes to start seeing the ID family here from 2022.

The Skoda? It’s yet to be officially confirmed for Australia, but maybe late 2022 at best.

“With the ID.4, Volkswagen is adding an all-electric vehicle to its offering in the compact SUV class, the world’s largest growth segment”, said Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, who watched the first production ID.4 roll off the line at Zwickau.

“Following the ID.3, this is already the second model based on the modular electric drive matrix (MEB). Going forward, the car will be built and sold in Europe, in China, and later also in the USA. That is how we are scaling the MEB platform globally and laying the economic foundations for the success of our line-up of long-range electric vehicles.”

The Volkswagen ID.4 will initially be launched with rear-wheel drive, while an electric all-wheel drive version will be added a later date.

Three lithium-ion battery choices will be offered – 45kWh, 58kWh and range-topping 77kWh. The biggest and most expensive battery offers a maximum claimed range of around 500km (WLTP) on a full battery charge.

Volkswagen says the ID.4’s 0.28Cd coefficient of drag and scalable battery architecture aid both its performance and interior space efficiency.

As normal with modern car launches, the ID.4 has been subject to a series of teaser previews – including this one! A series of images were released earlier this week, after it was shown off camouflaged in March, last November and in September 2019.

But the best indication of what ID.4 will look like came courtesy of a leak out of the Chinese ministry of information and technology in June (pictured here).

Vital statistics were also leaked, including exterior dimensions that make it roughly the size of Australia’s top-selling SUV, the Toyota RAV4 – at 4592mm long and 1852mm wide.

Volkswagen Group has committed to spending 33 billion Euros (about $A54.5b) on e-mobility out to 2024. It is expecting to build 1.5 million electric cars in 2025. It is also aiming for complete carbon neutrality by 2050.

Volkswagen Group board member for e-mobility, Thomas Ulbrich, said the ID.4 hit its production start-up date despite the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Given the major societal challenges of recent months, the successful start of ID.4 series production is an exceptional achievement,” he said.

“The second model in the VW EV family is already rolling off the assembly line where, only recently, ICEs were still being built.”

Zwickau, in Saxony, is Volkswagen’s first large car manufacturing plant to be converted totally to e-mobility. Achieved at a cost of 1.2 billion Euros (about $A2b), it is forecast to produce 300,000 vehicles in 2021. That should make it the largest EV plant in Europe.

Volkswagen ID.4 pre-production has already started in Anting, China, and is scheduled to get underway in Chattanooga, USA, in 2022.