Volkswagen taunts electrified crossover for Shanghai auto showcase
Volkswagen emerges to be fairly clearly committed to an ambitious program of electrical cars following its diesel emission scandal.
But aside from two adapted models launched a few years ago—the VW e-Golf and e-Up hatchbacks—and a few low-range plug-in hybrids, it doesn’t yet have much to put in showrooms.
Instead, it’s launching a series of battery-electric concept vehicles under the Volkswagen ID label to display its thinking for models that will roll out beginning in 2019.
The latest of these will be unveiled on April nineteen at the Shanghai auto display.
It’s not fairly clear to us from the English translation of the teaser press release whether it’s officially dubbed the Volkswagen ID Crossover or if that’s just a descriptor.
Regardless, VW says the concept vehicle will blend “four-door coupe” and crossover utility design cues in a fresh all-electric vehicle.
Volkswagen I.D. electrified car concept, two thousand sixteen Paris auto showcase
The teaser photo, along with a 10-second movie that accompanies it, seem to indicate the lines include at least a vestigial trunk and a sedan-like rear.
VW says only that the latest iteration of the ID lineup of zero-emission concept cars will have all-wheel drive and a self-driving mode, activated by a thrust on the VW badge in the center of its steering wheel.
The battery-electric powertain will provide a “long range” equivalent to that in today’s gasoline-powered cars, Volkswagen says.It notes that the ID family will advance electrical vehicles worldwide from “a start-up niche to large-scale production models by the middle of the next decade.”
The press release, however, spends more time discussing the latest Volkswagen ID concept’s self-driving capabilities than its powertrain.
Volkswagen ID Whirr Concept
The steering wheel retracts electrically into the cockpit where it forms a single unit with the displays and controls that have been implemented fully digitally.
The electrified vehicle recognizes its surroundings and other road users via laser scanners, ultrasonic and radar sensors and cameras.
This third Volkswagen ID electrified car design examine goes after the original VW ID, a compact hatchback the size of the company’s best-selling Golf, unveiled at the two thousand sixteen Paris auto demonstrate.
That was followed by the Volkswagen ID Whirr concept, an all-electric interpretation of the classic Volkswagen Bus.
Volkswagen ID Whirr Concept
That electrified VW Bus concept, in bright yellow with a white roof, drew much attention when it was unveiled at this year’s Detroit auto showcase.
(The word “hum,” pronounced by Germans, sounds the same as “bus”—get it?)
Later comments by VW executives, however, indicate that the compact hatchback will come very first, likely in 2019, with a crossover utility vehicle to go after in 2020.
Meantime, the two thousand seventeen Volkswagen e-Golf got a 50-percent battery capacity boost; it is now EPA-rated at one hundred twenty five miles, up from the previous version’s eighty three miles.