Is A More Affordable VW ID.4 Coming To America?

By now you’ll know that Volkswagen’s cheerful electric hatchback, the ID.3, isn’t coming to North America. This is sad news as the ID.3 looks great – especially with some sporty add-ons – and has given VW’s global EV sales a big boost. To further capitalize on its success, VW has launched a less powerful and lower-priced ID.3 in the United Kingdom, dropping the starting price to well under £30,000 (around $41,363 at current rates) in that country. Could this be an indication that a more affordable ID.4 could make it stateside, considering that both vehicles are based on the same MEB platform?

The new entry-level ID.3’s powertrain is called the Pro. It produces 143 horsepower, down from the Pro Performance version’s 201-hp output. The base Pro powertrain offers up 199 lb-ft of torque. As a result of the drop in output, the 0-62 mph time increases to 9.6 seconds, quite a bit slower than the more powerful version’s 7.3-second effort and rather tardy among EVs generally. Fortunately, the ID.3 Pro boasts the same 58-kWh battery and charging times, with only 35 minutes required to get the battery up to 80 percent using 100-kW DC charging. The less powerful model offers a range of up to 263 miles as per the WLTP cycle, exactly the same as the Life Pro Performance.