Volkswagen opened up pre-orders in Europe in a launch event Wednesday for a special edition of the first model in its ID brand. Within one day, the company received more than 10,000 registrations, a result that indicates growing demand for electrical vehicles.
VW revealed Wednesday the title, some pricing and range specs for the model in its own multi-billion-dollar effort. This first model, called the ID.3, is an electric hatchback which will be offered in three battery options, with ranges between 330 and around 550 kilometers (205 miles to 341 miles) in accordance with WLTP. The WLTP, or Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, is the European standard to quantify emissions and energy consumption.
Customer interest in the special edition “ID.3 1” — which is limited to 30,000 vehicles — is “significantly exceeding the newest ’s expectations, VW said Thursday, adding that the firm ’s website has struggled to handle the significant number of users accessing the system to pre-order the automobile.
“This leads to long waiting times and interruptions. Volkswagen is currently working hard to eliminate the hitches,” Volkswagen said in a statement. “Nevertheless, more than 10,000 registrations were received throughout Europe during the first 24 hours. ”
Production of this ID.3 1 is expected to begin at the end of 2019; the first vehicles should be delivered in mid-2020, VW said.
Initial interest in the ID.3 — as measured by the pre-order figures shared by VW — is reminiscent, albeit on a smaller scale, to those heady times in 2016 when Tesla opened up reservations for its Model 3 sedan. After Tesla opened up pre-ordering, the company boasted more than 325,000 customers had made $1,000 deposits for the Model 3. That automobile wouldn’t come to market until July 2017.
VW customers pay a deposit of €1,000 ($1,122) to pre-order the special edition vehicle. The special edition version of this ID.3 includes free electrical charging for the first year, up to a maximum of 2,000 kWh, at all public charging points connected to the Volkswagen charging app WeCharge and utilizing the pan-European rapid charging network IONITY.
The pre-booking special edition, which will cost less than €40,000 ($44,898), before incentives, has an estimated range of 420 km beneath WLTP (about 260 miles). A base model of this ID.3 will get a smaller battery and will begin at less than €30,000 in Germany, according to VW.
Volkswagen has been showing off its ID lineup of concept vehicles for years. Now, the company is finally beginning to prepare some of these for production, beginning with the ID.3. VW intends to sell 100,000 ID.3 vehicles annually.
The ID.3 hatchback is the first model to be built on the automaker’s new Modular Electric Drive Toolkit, or MEB, electric-car architecture. Founded in 2016, MEB is a flexible modular system — a matrix of common parts — for producing electric vehicles which VW says makes it more efficient and more efficient.
Others will soon follow. VW plans to have a portfolio of more than 20 models. The automaker’s objective is to sell 1 million electric vehicles annually.
Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buy tickets
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.