Volkswagen is starting work on the development of its most affordable electric car: the ID.1

The German manufacturer has got to work and is already planning the first phases of development of what will be the natural successor to the current e-up!. However, this will not be the first urban electric car in the ID. family with a fairly affordable price. The Volkswagen ID.2 will arrive much earlier, in 2025, and just one year later the ID.2 SUV will also make its debut on the market.

The Volkswagen ID.1, a small-sized and even more affordable urban electric car, will therefore arrive as early as 2027. Let’s remember that Volkswagen’s goal is to sell the ID.2 at a price around 25 thousand euros, so the price of the ID.1 should be clearly below this barrier. Perhaps around 20 thousand euros?

Just a few days ago, during a conference held in London, Thomas Schäfer, the current CEO of Volkswagen, referred to the future commercialisation of the ID.1. In his own words, the decision to launch this model or not is still up in the air, and there are many factors the company must take into account before making a final decision. The head of Volkswagen made it very clear, however, that the current slowdown in electric car sales affecting some manufacturers is not one of these factors, since the ID.1 will not reach the market until 2027 at the earliest, by which time the market situation is expected to be very different from today.

The goal is to repeat the e-up!’s sales success with the ID.1

The German manufacturer wants to decide whether to press ahead with the development of the ID.1 shortly, even before next summer; always bearing in mind that the success or failure of this project will depend on the vehicle’s selling price, since the ID.1 sits in a market segment that is extremely sensitive to this variable. Being able to cut costs to the bone will therefore be crucial.

In relation to this last point, Volkswagen is currently developing a new low-cost platform for the Chinese market called China Main Platform (CMP). The company plans to sell at least four new electric models based on this platform in that Asian country from 2026 onwards. However, although using this platform for the ID.1 also seems to be an option, the head of Volkswagen has already made it very clear that importing the ID.1 from China is not viable. Words that probably have a lot to do with the expected rise in tariffs in Europe on vehicle imports from that country.

So, developing a new platform or reaching some kind of agreement with another manufacturer seem to be the only options for limiting the production costs of the ID.1. In this regard, some rumours have already suggested the possibility that Volkswagen could be interested in using the platform that Renault will use in the next-generation Twingo. Although for the moment that is nothing more than a rumour.