FRANKFURT — The Golf-sized subcompact that Volkswagen will employ to begin its global charge into affordable electric vehicles will not be coming to the United States — but many of its components and design characteristics will.
The Volkswagen ID3, unveiled here late Monday in advance of the Frankfurt auto show, is the first of what is expected to become scores of EVs that will share the German mass-market brand's global modular electric platform, known as MEB.
Among the vehicles are three planned to be sold in the U.S.: a five-passenger crossover due in late 2020 called the ID Crozz; a retro-styled version of VW's famed Microbus called the ID Buzz, due in early 2023; and a third vehicle that has yet to be identified and is due in late 2023.
With exterior dimensions and styling similar to the still-popular-in-Europe VW Golf, the ID3 will have a rear-mounted drive motor and come with one of three batteries: a base-level 45 kilowatt-hour battery with a range of up to 205 miles, a midlevel 58 kWh battery with a range of about 260 miles or a high-level 77 kWh battery with an expected range of up to 341 miles, all calculated under European testing standards.
Battery sizes and ranges for the EVs that Volkswagen will sell in the U.S. beginning next year are expected to be bigger, given those vehicles' larger footprint. VW is expected to pursue a similar multitier battery pack strategy with EVs marketed in North America.