ID.4

Make
Volkswagen
Segment
SUV

According to the CEO of the biggest electric vehicle company on the planet (Tesla's Elon Musk), nobody is working harder to close the gap to Tesla than Volkswagen. The German automaker's Volkswagen ID.4 has been a remarkable success so far, to the point that VW has no more EVs to sell this year. That momentum is likely to continue with new offerings like the ID.Buzz electric van that will surely help to further increase the brand's share of the electric car market. But the biggest issues facing EVs are a lack of infrastructure and a high cost of entry, which is why VW is working on an affordable EV. But when can we expect to see it?

According to VW Group CEO Herbert Diess, development of its entry-level EV is "well under way" alongside those of the automaker's sister companies, Skoda and Cupra. This new EV will be roughly the size of a Polo hatchback, which is not sold in the US and is expected to arrive by 2025; speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car conference on Monday, Diess had the following to say: "The challenge that big cars are more profitable than small cars remains, but now is the right time to come with the small cars by 2025." Unfortunately, these affordable EVs are unlikely to be offered in the US, but if they were, what would they cost?

Volkswagen has previously said that the entry-level EVs from each of its brands would cost between €20,000-€25,000 (roughly $21,100-$26,400 at the time of writing). Volkswagen's version of the car will likely be called the ID.2 and will sit atop a shorter version of the VW Group's MEB electric platform that Spanish automaker Seat has been tasked with developing. If Volkswagen can bring affordable EVs to market and accelerate its self-driving technology quickly enough, it could become a real threat to Tesla and the rest of the electric auto industry. Along with its new fast-charging network, Volkswagen is on course to dominate the future.