It’s being called Volkswagen’s new affordable ‘people’s car’.
But unlike the original ‘Beetle’, it’s a battery-electric model aimed at putting the mockers on China’s plans to flood Europe with low-cost, Beijing-backed rivals.
The German carmaker has teased an image of the EV, a likely hatchback set for production in 2027 and priced at 20,000 euros, or $NZ36,000. A concept is expected to soon go public.
It would be “an affordable, high-quality, profitable electric Volkswagen from Europe, for Europe,” said VW chief executive Thomas Schafer. “This is the Champions League of automobile manufacturing.”
Volkswagen Group works council chairman Daniela Cavallo said the ID.1 will be a “Volkswagen in the genuine sense of the term”, meaning ‘people’s car’ in German.
The car is expected to be called the ID.1 It’ll be spun off a version of VW’s Modular Electric Drive (MEB) platform, developed by VW and its stablemates including Audi and Skoda. The platform also underpins the ID.2 EV, due in Europe next year.
VW wants the new model to punch sales holes in Chinese carmakers’ targets for Europe. It is eyeing BYD in particular, which has overtaken Tesla as the world’s largest seller of EVs.
BYD is aiming to be in the top three brands in Europe by 2030, and plans to have 100 dealerships in the UK alone by the end of this year. For the first time last month its sales in Britain topped those of Tesla.
Britain is one of the few Western countries where China can sell its EVs – a key pillar of its economic strategy – with no tariffs.
The European Union imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs late last year, in an effort to prop up the bloc’s domestic industry as it grapples with stalled demand for EVs, last year down 26% on 2023 sales.
Analysts say the EU could similarly push for the UK to back the bloc’s stance on Chinese EVs, especially since Britain is no longer the carmaker it once was.
Its car production last year slumped to the lowest level in 70 years as the sector struggled with the government-mandated shift to EVs.
Britain made 779,584 cars in 2024, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the lowest level since 1954, aside from the Covid pandemic.
This year will be even worse for Britain’s carmakers, warns the SMMT. It predicts that just 775,000 cars will roll off production lines in 2025. That is compared to 1.3m in 2019.
Almost eight in 10 cars built in the UK last year were destined for export, with 77.5% shipped to either the EU, the US or China.