Volkswagen spent years trying to make diesel as big in America as it was in Europe and other markets. Then it got caught cheating in a very big way. Wracked by scandal, fines and lawsuits, the German automaker is now trying to chart a new way forward. This is the rolling electric symbol of that new way, and it’s called the Volkswagen I.D.
They’re actually going to make it, too. Or at least they say they are.
Ahead of this week’s Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen unveiled this compact electric car said to hit the road as a production model alongside the Golf in 2020. Five years after that, VW promises a fully autonomous drive mode.
Welcome to the future. At least it’s an attractive one, in a very BMW i3-ish sort of way.
Volkswagen was, however, short on details, except to say that this previews the “newly developed design DNA for electric cars” and it has an electric motor with an output of 125 kW. Range is said to be between about 250 and up to 373 miles, about on par with the current Tesla lineup. Not bad.
There are no photos of the interior yet, but VW says the steering wheel can fully retract into the dashboard when it’s in autonomous drive mode.
The car can also “receive parcels using a new delivery service, if its owner isn’t at home,” which is great if you’re as concerned as I am about people stealing your Zappos boxes.
VW says it wants to sell a million EVs by 2025, and this doesn’t look like a bad way to start—or at least make everyone begin to forget about all that diesel cheating.
More on this as we get it.