- The ID.1 project will produce electric vehicles under the price of €20,000/£17,000
- The world premiere of the electrified compact city car is expected in 2027
- VW bosses want to compete with cheap Chinese EVs taking over the market
Volkswagen is poised to take on China and its wave of low-cost electric vehicles (EVs) with its own low-cost EV coming within a few years.
The German carmaker – famous for the post-World War II VW Beetle ‘People’s Car’ – has promised a compact electric car priced at around €20,000, which would be just over £17,000 in Britain.
Likely to be called the ID.1 EV, it will be unveiled in 2027.
Volkswagen has promised to take on Chinese EV manufacturers by launching a budget-friendly small EV in 2027. Here’s what we know about it so far
The ID.1 is on course to become the German brand’s smallest model and will take the recently vacated city car space in the VW range left by the Up! last year.
It will be the company’s battle against Chinese rivals – such as BYD, MG, Ora and Leapmotor – who are taking market share from Western manufacturers with their budget-oriented battery cars.
Auto Trader’s Road to 2035 report puts Chinese brands on course to claim a sixth of the UK’s electric car market by 2030, predicting the rise of their low-cost vehicles.
Volkswagen has said the European industry has two to three years to brace for the threat of cheap Asian competition.
The most affordable electric car in Britain from next week will be the Romanian-made Dacia Spring, which will start from £14,995 when it lands in Britain in October – with order books officially opening on June 4.
The launch edition of the Citroen e-C3 will start from £23,000, but a cheaper £17,000 version is said to arrive in 2025 – another rival for Chinese brands and VW.
Britain’s cheapest electric car… and by some margin: Dacia has confirmed that its new Spring EV (pictured) will be available in Britain from £14,995 when it goes on sale in June
Leapmotor International is the next new electric car brand from the Far East that wants to break into the European market. The first model – the pictured T03 – will likely cost less than Dacia’s Spring
Volkswagen worked on its ID.1 project with French carmaker Renault, but the collaboration collapsed earlier this month, according to reports.
In April, after VW was overtaken by Chinese rival BYD as China’s best-selling car brand, CEO Oliver Blume told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that VW “can’t keep up with the top of the table.”
But now VW appears to be entering the fray with a series of new cost-cutting measures, in addition to a promise to make cheap electric cars.
The brand is implementing €10 billion in financial savings by 2026.
The VW ID.2all concept has already given a preview of what the new ID.2 will look like. VW claims it won’t cost more than €25,000 when it hits showrooms in 2026
This timeline matches the expected launch date of the upcoming VW ID.2, which will be Volkswagen’s cheapest electric version when it launches in 2026.
The Golf-sized EV will have a range of 280 miles and will cost less than £22,000, bosses have promised.
This new ID.1 will hit the market just below.
Currently, VW’s cheapest electric car costs £35,700 ID.3, while the most expensive is the ID.Buzz retro-inspired camper ‘van’, which starts from £59,035 new.
The majority of VW’s other electric models will also cost you around £50,000.
The VW ID.Buzz was named What Car? Car of the Year 2023, despite prices starting from over £57,000. It is the most expensive Volkswagen electric car currently on sale
Currently VW’s cheapest electric car is the ID.3 at £35,700. It accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.3 seconds and has a limited top speed of 160 km/h.
While the cheaper ID.1 will significantly undercut VW’s current price, Volkswagen brand boss Thomas Schaefer promised that the planned entry-level model would set standards in technology, design and quality.
VW will locate much of the project in Europe, reducing transportation costs, times and emissions, which will help offset current high energy, raw material and labor costs.