The upcoming ID.1 has hit a snag.
The Volkswagen ID.4 all-electric SUV is currently on sale in the US and production will get underway at the automaker's Chattanooga, Tennessee facility in the near future (the vehicle is still being imported from Germany). Additional EVs will soon follow but not all of them will be sold in America. The 2025 ID.2 subcompact crossover is one of them.
We learned some key details about this overseas-only EV earlier this month, such as the name of its new platform, the so-called MEB Entry. An EV designed for cities makes complete sense, right? Indeed, and so does an EV small hatchback roughly the size of the VW Polo.
You'd think the ID.2 can be easily downsized and lowered for this purpose, but no. It turns out things are more complex. Autocar reports the German automaker is concerned the required technology won't be ready by 2025 to make the ID.1 a reality. Whether this could affect the ID.2's status remains unclear.
The key obstacle appears to be finding a way to package the ID.1 so that it can be priced the same as the ICE-powered Polo. The new technology, at this time, simply won't allow that. Pricing EVs so that they're affordable is a challenge for all automakers right now. Any form of new technology is always pricier in the beginning.
But if VW intends to convince potential Polo buyers to make the EV transition, it can't ask them to expand their budgets any further. An even playing field needs to be created between the two vehicles. Eventually, the Polo will likely be phased out entirely and the ID.1 will take its place. Until that happens, the challenge of keeping the ID.1 affordable remains. In general, EVs are already viewed by many as "elitist" and they want no part of them.
That will clearly have to change since automakers left and right are pledging to end combustion-engined vehicle sales completely. No one ever said moving to EV-only future was going to be easy.
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