The Volkswagen ID Thread (Contains EVs)

What happened with the ID? A year or two ago we saw a couple on the roads, and it looked like the release was imminent.

I can't really seem to find anything from VWSA.
 
The Volkswagen XL1 has returned as an ID. Polo-based hatch that’ll do 500 miles*

*Sort of. Welcome to Volkswagen’s ‘Mission Efficiency’

This is the Volkswagen ‘Mission Efficiency’. Admittedly not the most exciting of monikers, but in this era of electric mobility and cost-of-living squeeze, an exciting project: it’s an ID. Polo-based hatchback capable of nearly 500 miles of range.

And as you can see, it channels the spirit – and fairings – of the brilliant little XL1 from 2013. Where that car had the potential to squeeze out 300mpg – three hundred! – from its teeny two-cylinder diesel, this one can cruise up to 495-ish miles. In very specific circumstances, naturally.

It’s based on the MEB+ front-wheel-drive platform that sits underneath that new electric Polo and the ID. Cross (*shrug emoji*). It’s much longer and lower than an ID. Polo, mind, offering up four seats, the rearmost ones capable of storing passengers up to 5ft 3in.

But the key here is the use of production-ready tech like the 54.9kWh battery and the 133bhp e-motor which are already in use. Then comes the ID. Polo’s front suspension and hydraulic brake, with an electromechanical brake on the back axle.

 
The most powerful VW GTI of all time isn't a Golf: welcome to the VW ID.3 GTI

Volkswagen has decided the ID.3 is worthy of GTI status. Bad move?

This is all the VW ID. Polo’s fault. Y’see, when Volkswagen announced it would make a hot hatch tearaway out of its new electric supermini – click here to see what we reckoned to the normal version – it insisted the ID. Polo was worthy of the three most special letters in the Volkswagen universe: GTI.

And that left the fast version of VW’s next electric car up, the ID.3, in an awkward position.

If it stuck to calling it ‘GTX’ (which literally no-one understands) it would be admitting that it wasn’t worthy of being a GTI. Hardly screams ‘BUY ME’, does it?

But if VW was going to badge an ID.3 as a GTI, it would need a colossal heap of improvements to stop the die-hard fans storming the factory with flaming tartan seats and exhaust pipes sharpened into lances.

It’s chosen the second option. And the first bit of good news is the new ID.3 GTI is based on the new ID.3 Neo. So there are buttons galore on the steering wheel and amid the centre console. It’s no longer made out of plastics that Lego rejected for being too hard and shiny. And it’s got VW’s latest battery tech, so it has more range than a robo-hoover.

The second bit of good news is it’s the most powerful GTI Volkswagen has ever made.

Okay, it’s only pipping the Golf GTI 50 by a measly 1bhp, but still, that’s a statement. In the Golf’s half-century year of hot hatch legendariness, it’s being usurped by a battery-powered box. Rude!

In fact, the ID.3 GTI’s 326hp goes to the back wheels, like no Golf GTI ever. Despite weighing two tonnes (ugh, but doesn’t everything these days?) the GTI scampers to 62mph in 5.6 seconds, which is almost as quick as the most potent petrol GTI. Top speed is respectable-for-an-EV, at 125mph.

 
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