Volkswagen has announced the name of the first model of the new ID family, the ID.3, months before its official world premiere at the Frankfurt international motor show in September.
Volkswagen described the announcement as the future of electromobility, with customers across Europe, and here in Ireland, having the opportunity to reserve the chance to order the ID.3, the first member of what will be a family of electric vehicles from Volkswagen.
On the Volkswagen Ireland website customers will find the new ID. hub (https://www.volkswagen.ie/e-mobility/en.html ), and they will be able to place a €1,000 reservation fee in order to gain early access to an ID.3 ‘First Edition’, a high-specification vehicle that showcases the new model in its finest guise.
This reservation fee will just allow the customer the opportunity to order the new model from their chosen retailer for delivery in the summer of 2020. However, with no details confirmed as yet as to how many vehicles Volkswagen Ireland will get in 2020, and no pricing for the ID.3 available at this time (as in other markets ), pre-booking is a bit of a lottery.
Volkswagen says the number three is significant in two ways. On the one hand, it indicates the ID as belonging to the compact segment, which is the class distinction in both internal and industry-wide classification systems. On the other, the ID.3 follows the Beetle and the Golf to introduce the third major chapter of strategic importance for the history of the brand.
Jürgen Stackmann, a member of Volkswagen’s board of management, says VW was starting from the centre, the Volkswagen brand’s core, in which the majority of the models and sales volume can be found.
"The number three also signals expandability into the segments above and below it. We have a lot in the pipeline,” says Jürgen Stackmann, offering a preview of their 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.
Every member of this model family will bear the name ID, which represents a new, independent series of products in the brand portfolio. Volkswagen says while the Beetle once mobilised the masses, and the Golf as the class leader featured great innovations in each generation, the ID will make e-mobility accessible to a broad spectrum of customers. It adds that the name ID stands for intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies.
While this has not been confirmed as yet for the Irish market, Volkswagen is offering ID.3 first buyers the possibility of taking electric power for their vehicles free of charge for the first year up to a maximum of 2,000 kWh – at all public charging points connected to the Volkswagen charging app We Charge. It is also using the pan-European IONITY rapid charging network, in which Volkswagen is participating, which offers eco-power where this is technically feasible.
Following the launch of the id.3, additional models will roll out, such as those previewed by the concept cars ID Crozz, iD Vizzion and ID Roomzz, and which will in the future also be named with model numbers. However, for now we can look forward to seeing the car hitting the streets of Ireland in the summer of next year.
