Months before its official world premiere at the IAA international motor show, Volkswagen has officially named and begun taking orders for the first model of the ID family. The first of these fully electric models is called the ID.3. The name ID. Stands for intelligent design, while the number 3 denotes the segment into which it fits. The ID.3 follows the Beetle and the Golf to introduce the third major chapter of strategic importance for the history of the brand.
“With the ID.3, we are starting from the centre, the Volkswagen brand’s core, in which the majority of the models and sales volume can be found. The number 3 also signals expandability into the segments above and below it. We have a lot in the pipeline,” says Jürgen Stackmann, Member of the Board of Management Volkswagen Brand for Sales, Marketing & After Sales, offering a preview of Volkswagen’s e-mobility campaign. With this campaign, the brand is willing to become the number one brand globally by 2025, with more than 20 purely electrically driven models and more than a million vehicles sold annually, all of which being both networked and emission-free.
The ID.3 will be built on the German manufacturers MEB platform which will also underpin a further 20 models which are scheduled for the coming years. The ID.3 will be offered with 3 different battery sizes. In 45kW guise it will have a WLTP range of 330Km, the 58kW version’s range will be 420km while the long distance 77kW model is set to be capable of travelling an impressive 550 km between chargers. Furthermore it will be capable of rapid charging at up to 125kW.
We can expect to see delivers of the first ID.3’s in mid-2020 and while there is no Irish pricing just yet VW say the 45kW model will cost less than €30k in Germany. The ID.3 is available to book now through a special online booking system. Customers are required to pay a €1,000 registration deposit (refundable up until April 2020) to secure their place in the queue.
