The Coolest Thing About The Electric VW ID.3 Is The Shifter
A lot of people are looking to the upcoming Volkswagen ID.3 electric hatchback as proof that a traditional manufacturer can make an attractive, practical mainstream electric vehicle on par with the Tesla Model 3. To VW's credit, the ID.3 appears to be shaping up to meet the challenge.
While we still haven't seen the uncamouflaged production version of the car, VW's latest teaser shows us glimpses of the car's interior.
The quick video features a prominent lip piercing, but also shows off the digital driver display behind the steering wheel, which also includes the gear selector mounted as a twistable knob integrated into the screen display.
As demonstrated in the video, it appears you twist it clockwise to go into Drive, perhaps twist clockwise again to go into "B" mode, which is the setting for more aggressive brake regeneration on many current electric vehicles.
Considering the display arrows on the screen below "D/B" are different from the arrow above them, I'm not sure how you put the car in neutral or reverse. One would imagine it's a simple as turning the dial counter clockwise, but I can't be sure based on the video. And there's what appears to be a push button on the end for Park.
It's also similar to the selector found in the BMW i3, just much more simplified, straightforward and much less confusing than what BMW tried there:
The other elements of the dashboard shown in the video are a large center infotainment screen, which appears to have tiles for navigation, media, audio settings, and phone connectivity. On the left is probably the home-page button, as well as seat controls and climate controls, and then below that is a physical power button, likely for powering the screen off for maximum energy preservation.
The video also highlights what seems to be a voice-activated digital assistant of some sort, which the driver activates by saying, "Hello, I.D." (in German), before proceeding to tell the car they're cold. The car responds that it will make it warmer.
For what its worth, none of what we see in this video was in the original ID hatchback concept car a few years back, nor was it previewed in the latest ID concept car from this year, the Roomzz. So far, all of those have gone for the full concept car effect. This is much more practical.
It looks like Volkswagen went as simplified and minimalist as it dared with the ID.3, at least without relying entirely on a center-mounted table-like screen like on the Tesla Model 3, and it looks pretty good so far.
While we most likely won't get this car in the U.S., deliveries in Europe start next year, and it's very likely we'll see a similar interior setup on the Volkswagen EVs we do eventually get in America.
