Volkswagen plans small e-car for ID range by 2026

FRANKFURT – Volkswagen’s core brand should catch up this year after the production and delivery backlog in 2022 and ramp up car supply to customers again, chief financial officer Patrik Andreas Mayer said on Wednesday.

The aim is to achieve a significant increase in deliveries, including e-cars, Mayer said while presenting business figures in the company’s headquarters in the northern German city of Wolfsburg. Recently, however, there had been further difficulties in the procurement of electronics and some raw materials, he added.

“We are cautiously optimistic that the supply situation will stabilize in the course of the year,” Mayer said before an evening presentation of plans for a new small car in the electric ID series.

The ID.2 should be ready for launch by 2026 and cost under €25,000 ($26,400) in the basic version.

Climate activists have long demanded that the company equip not only larger vehicles with alternative drives. Mayer stressed, however, that VW’s main division must continue to watch its costs.

In addition, the “very challenging environment in terms of supply, raw material and energy prices as well as the geopolitical situation” is likely to remain in 2023, he warned.

Volkswagen’s new chief executive Thomas Schäfer and board member Thomas Ulbrich had already set more ambitious targets for the further expansion of e-mobility.

For example, the share of purely electric vehicles at VW Passenger Cars in Europe should be at least 80% by 2030, and 10 new electric models are to be launched on the market by 2026.

The ID.2 will be among them and be about the size of a Polo, with the concept still trading under the name ID.2all. “Electromobility will then be offered in every volume segment,” the company said.