Volkswagen ID EVs given provisional green light for Oz

Volkswagen Australia is officially on the path to bringing its bourgeoning ID family of electric cars to Australia following what it calls “progressive” policy announcements from various Australian states and territories.

Non-committal on the rollout until now, Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA) managing director Michael Bartsch confirmed that recent New South Wales policy in particular had enabled local officials “to make representations to its factories for EV prioritisation”.

NSW was this week declared top of the class for EV policy by the Electric Vehicle Council, and has been anointed as the gold standard for which other states and territories, and even the federal government, should follow.

A slew of jurisdictions are now formulating their own EV policies, including rebates and road user charges. South Australia is the latest.

“The announcement of NSW’s progressive policy has enabled our group to make representations to its factories for EV prioritisation,” Bartsch confirmed.

“Volkswagen is actively preparing for EVs, as it must, given the dealer network wide infrastructure requirements. The NSW government’s exemplary EV strategy informs our ongoing dialogue with the factory.

“Volkswagen is hopeful soon of being able to confirm at least the Touareg R, a PHEV that was categorically off the table until recently. Likewise the other VGA brands are working hard on introducing what is conspicuously absent in the Australian market – relatively affordable European EVs and PHEVs.”

Bartsch is likewise hopeful of introducing a range of Cupra PHEVs into the Australian market as the Spanish performance brands prepares to launch locally in the first half of 2022, and he said “Volkswagen would like nothing more than to announce the introduction of the ID.4 – it’s preferred debut EV – but there can be no certainty”.

“Don’t doubt though that there is a significant effort on the part of the brand in Australia to make that and other EVs and PHEVs happen,” he said.

Volkswagen’s eagerness is being tempered by what it calls a lack of action at a federal government level.

Bartsch pointed to regions where EV and PHEV take-up had accelerated heavily upon the introduction of appropriate legislation.

“Demand for EVs and PHEVs alike begins to exceed supply in markets where there are punitive fines for failing to meet brand emission targets as designated by the European Union,” he said.

“In the US and China, it is onwards and upwards for low- and zero-emission vehicles both in terms of production and sales.

“The Australian government’s evident lack of interest in such a fundamental, internationally endorsed target has been the single greatest obstacle Volkswagen has encountered in seeking EV and PHEV production prioritisation.

“In fact, in some quarters there remains some ill-founded, quasi-ideological prejudice against EVs that border on the luddite – something impossible to fathom in other developed countries.”

As well as the Volkswagen ID.4 SUV, other ID family members include the Volkswagen ID.3 small hatch, the bigger ID.5 coupe-crossover, ID.6 large SUVs and the Kombi-like ID.Buzz.

There’s plenty more in the pipeline, too.