Experiencing the future of VW with the I.D Concept

If Volkswagen is right, one in six of the new cars it sells by 2025 will be either one of these, or a model related from it. Welcome to the VW I.D – a car that literally heralds the future of the German giant. 1 million sales a year depend on it…

Indeed, a good 30 models will be built from this I.D’s underpinnings, including Audis, Skodas and Seats as well as Volkswagens. They’ll have self-driving functionality too, and be connected to a multitude of apps that could even let your car communicate with a like-minded fellow driver on the road, should you so wish.

It’s a big deal. But then, so is the emissions-related scandal Volkswagen is currently mired in. The I.D family of cars is its answer to this, the way it’s going to dig itself out. Just as the original Beetle and then the Golf were breakthrough VWs, so too will be the I.D, goes the ambition. To say there’s a lot riding on its launch in three years’ time is putting it mildly.

Perhaps that’s why Volkswagen was so happy to let us drive the world’s only prototype, and speak to Christine Leuderalbert, VW’s e-Mobility expert. She tells us it will use the latest lithium ion batteries, and not be built around an exotic carbonfibre shell, but a more mainstream dedicated electrical structure called MEB. Batteries are laid out flat and the wheels are pushed out to the sides; the electric motor’s at the rear, driving the back wheels.

This could be inspired. Whereas everyone else is going exotic and expensive, Volkswagen is keeping a lid on the fancy engineering and concentrating on building it affordably and in great volume. Oh, and flawlessly engineering the car to be as cleverly-conceived as possible. That’s why, for example, it is little longer than a VW Polo, yet runs on a wheelbase as long as a VW Passat. Packaging ingenuity at work.

It feels spacious inside, perhaps more so by the time it reaches production as Volkswagen plans to raise the roof, although it will probably also thicken the pillars with crash safety in mind. The production one will get normal doors, too, rather than the electric sliding rear doors on this prototype. Again, with costs in mind.

We didn’t really find out much about the drive, though. This is a prototype, so felt awful. Our speed was strictly capped to under 20mph and the haphazard acceleration showed no evidence of the production car’s intended 8.0sec 0-62mph time, while the enthusiast promise of rear-mounted engine and rear-wheel drive remains just that, a promise. Still, at least it moves at all: not all concepts as this stage do. And driving it does allow us to get a feel for the concept Volkswagen’s working on here.

Clearly, the I.D is going to be a practical car, just like the Beetle was in its day, and the Golf is today. Volkswagen has a solution to electric car range anxiety too: the base £22,000 car will, in 2020, have 250 miles’ range – but you can pay extra for bigger batteries taking it up to 372 miles. Ingeniously, you’ll be able to retro-fit extra range, and upgrade the batteries when technology improves.