Latest news with #ID1
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
VW, with Rivian help, brings forward launch of first software-defined vehicle
Volkswagen Group has shortened by a year its timeline for offering its first software-defined vehicle. The biggest reason for that is the automaker's partnership with U.S. electric vehicle maker Rivian. The production version of VW's ID Every1 electric minicar will launch in 2027 as the group's first software-defined vehicle, VW brand CFO David Powels said on the brand's 2024 earnings call on March 13. VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said last March that the automaker's first software-defined vehicle would not arrive until 2028. At that pace, it would be two years behind Renault Group, which has said its software-defined vehicle would be ready by 2026. Volvo says its EX90 and ES90 already qualify to be called software-defined vehicles. Powels said VW Group's partnership with Rivian has helped the company bring forward the launch of advanced software functions, starting with the ID1. Last year, VW Group invested $1.3 billion into Rivian for intellectual property licenses, which included a contribution from VW brand, Powels said without providing more detail. It was part of a deal valued at nearly $6 billion. The characteristics that qualify the ID1 to be called a software-defined vehicle include 'updatable and very performant electric/electronic software architecture, [which] is something we are doing in our joint venture with Rivian,' VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said in response to a question from Automotive News Europe on the earnings call. The production ID1, which is expected to start at €20,000, will be the first VW Group car to get the new electronic architecture, he said. Schäfer also shared the target groups for the full-electric minicar, which include first-time car buyers, older customers and businesses such as food delivery and healthcare service providers. Sign up for the Automotive News Europe Focus on Technology weekly newsletter, looking at advancements in all aspects of the vehicle including performance, autonomous driving, batteries and more. VW will build the ID1 in Setubal, Portugal, at its Autoeuropa plant, which is one of the company's most cost-efficient factories because of the country's low labor and energy costs. Blume said the plant, which is 50 kilometers southeast of Lisbon and currently builds the VW T-Roc crossover, was also picked because of the good supplier infrastructure in Spain and Portugal, including VW's battery plant in Valencia, and its Pamplona factory that will build the ID2 full-electric small car. VW Group CFO Arno Antlitz said March 11 that achieving positive margins on the ID1 'will be difficult.' Making profitability even more challenging is that there will be no derivatives of the affordable EV to offer to VW siblings. 'We will not do a rebadge for Seat, Cupra or Skoda,' Schäfer said. 'We are differentiating now pretty clearly what model gets done by which brand so that we are not overlapping. I think by doing this we can develop more power within the individual brands.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Toyota takes cautious approach to super-cheap EVs
BRUSSELS — Toyota is not convinced that a battery-electric minicar built in Europe and priced at €20,000 or less can be profitable. Volkswagen, Renault, Dacia and Citroen have already announced European-made BEVs at that price. Most are in the minicar segment, where Toyota ranked second in 2024 with the Aygo X. Toyota is holding back on launching a low-cost BEV in Europe for now. 'Given the current cost of batteries, I am suspicious that producing in Europe could be profitable at that price point,' Toyota Europe CEO Yoshihiro Nakata said in an interview in Brussels on March 6. Toyota's rivals also have worries about the profitability of electric minicars but they are launching them anyway. Volkswagen plans to launch the ID1 battery-electric minicar priced at €20,000 in 2027 even though executives admit that it will be tough to sell the entry-level EV at a profit. VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said during the company's 2024 earnings call March 11 that it was important for VW to develop the ID1 despite its low margins because it will help to bring new customers to the brand. Sign up for the Automotive News Europe Cars & Concepts newsletter, which covers the biggest moves in Europe's product market. On the same call VW Group CFO Arno Antlitz said that achieving positive margins on the ID1 'will be difficult.' He said the ID1 the will relieve pricing pressure on VW's larger EVs such as the ID2, which is due to launch in 2025. Antlitz said the ID2 will have a 'good profit margin.' The two minicars now available in Europe for €20,000 or less are both imported from China. They are the Leapmotor T03 and Dacia Spring. But European-built alternatives are coming. A sub-€20,000 version of the Citroen C3 small hatchback, which is built in Slovakia, has been announced but is not yet available. By early 2026, Renault will start selling a new-generation electric Twingo that will be built in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, along with a similar Dacia model the following year. VW has said that the ID1 will be built at the company's plant in Setubal, Portugal and into production by 2027. A Chinese rival, BYD, will start distributing this spring in Europe a restyled and renamed variant of the Seagull electric minicar it offers in China. It will cost 'well below' €20,000, BYD said. BYD, which is building new car plants in Hungary and Turkey, has not said whether the Seagull will be built in Europe. Battery-electric cars priced at €20,000 have potential but 'convenience, affordability and usability are not quite there for these kinds of vehicles,' Toyota Europe's marketing and product development boss, Andrea Carlucci, said in an interview March 6. Carlucci said that such a car needs to offer usable range and the ability to charge relatively quickly. Toyota Europe Chief Corporate Officer Matthew Harrison said minicars would be the 'most troublesome segment' to electrify 'because accessibility and cost are critical to that buyer.' He said Toyota had no plans to abandon the minicar segment but would take a wait-and-see approach to electrification. 'Let's see where the products from competitors are priced and what they look like from a payment-per-month point of view,' Harrison said. 'We don't want to give up on the A-segment [minicars]; we didn't desert it last time around when many others did, and we are not looking to desert it any time soon,' Harrison said. In recent years Toyota's partners, Citroen and Peugeot, withdrew from a jointly owned plant in Kolin, Czech Republic, that built the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108 minicars, and canceled future versions of those models. Toyota is expected to add a full-hybrid version to the Aygo X this year. Consumers in Europe should be a 'bit patient' for this powertrain, Nakata said. The Aygo X is Toyota's only high-volume European model without any form of electrification. Last year, 77 percent of Toyota registrations in Western Europe were full hybrids, the company said. The Aygo X is based on a shortened Yaris small-car platform and has CO2 emissions starting at 114 g/km, while the full-hybrid Yaris starts at 96 g/km, company figures show. Minicar sales fell 22 percent in Europe last year to 543,784, according to figures from Dataforce. The Aygo X showed the biggest growth, with sales up 50 percent to 98,723. It ranked second behind the Fiat Panda (120,135) and ahead of the Hyundai i10, at 69,393 sales. Nearly all of the segment's decline came from Fiat's decision to discontinue the ICE-based 500 in midyear, resulting in 41,783 fewer sales, as well as the withdrawal of incentives in France and higher EU tariffs on the China-built Dacia Spring EBV (a loss of 38,115 sales);and 33,458 fewer sales of the Fiat 500e, BEV according to Dataforce. Peter Sigal contributed to this report
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Does the £17k Volkswagen ID 1 really represent progress?
Range of "at least" 155 miles could mean the ID 1 can't go as far as the previous e-Up There's a lot to like about the Volkswagen ID 1. In an age when cars are forever growing bigger, here's a proper city car that's right-sized and looks great. A mainstream car brand committing to the A-segment is something to celebrate. But there's one big concern: with a promised range of 'at least' 155 miles, it's possible the ID 1 will go on sale in 2027 with basically the same range as offered by later versions of its spiritual predecessor, the e-Up. That doesn't feel like progress. To be fair, the ID 1 promises to be larger, more practical, more powerful and around £3000 cheaper than a new e-Up would have set you back in 2023 (and the e-Up benefitted from a government grant). Those are hard-won gains, and they haven't been easy. Still, it's a stark illustration of how making affordable electric cars is a huge challenge. EV batteries are slowly – glacially – getting cheaper, but they remain by far the most expensive part of a new EV. Volkswagen was determined to hit its €20,000 (£17,000) target for the ID 1, and the best way to do that is to right-size the battery for its intended urban use case. Trouble is, that requires buyers to accept a potentially unpalatable compromise. A range of 155 miles might be fine for the everyday, but what about those occasional weekend trips away? History suggests buyers are unlikely to compromise with their main or only car. It's concerning that, like the Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf and e-Up in the early days of mass-market EVs a decade or so back, the likes of the ID 1 and Dacia Spring could find most success as budget second cars – a daily runaround that allows you to keep your bigger, posher car for the weekend. Which is great, but that means instead of widening access to electric mobility, the new wave of cheap EV is really providing further benefit to more affluent buyers who can afford two cars. Single-car owners on a budget who don't want to compromise will stick with petrol. None of that is Volkswagen's fault: it can produce cheaper EVs, but it can't control who buys them. And in an age when so many rivals have given up on smaller, more affordable cars, credit to it for persisting in a category that is no longer a huge profit driver. It's absolutely doing the right thing. But this is a reminder that there's a long way to go to making truly usable everyday EVs that are genuinely affordable – and that, at present, even the drive towards affordable EVs risks benefitting those who are better off. ]]>
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
VW's €20,000 mini-EV highlights push to cover every volume segment
Volkswagen brand unveiled its vision of a low-cost electric minicar as part of its intention to offer the widest electric and combustion-engine range of any volume automaker in Europe, The production version of the ID Every1 will start at about €20,000 ($21,000) when it arrives in 2027. It will compete against new, affordable EVs from Chinese brands such as Leapmotor and BYD and traditional rivals including Renault. The production ID Every1, which is expected to be called the ID1, will be the entry-level model in VW brand's ID-badged range of battery-electric cars. 'The ID Every 1 represents the last piece of the puzzle on our way to the widest model selection in the volume segment,' VW brand boss Thomas Schaefer said during the concept's unveiling March 5. The production car will use the same front-drive MEB platform as the larger ID2 EV, which arrives first in 2026 and will start at about €25,000. VW has said it would launch nine new models by 2027, four of which will be part of the so-called Electric Urban Car Family that will include the ID1, ID2 and small crossover previewed by the 2023 ID2ALL concept. Sign up for the Automotive News Europe Segment Analysis newsletter, a monthly in-depth look at a segment of the car market, including sales and market share data VW didn't give an indication of where the ID1 will be built, or any technical details including targets for electric range. The ID1 concept features large wheels, chunky wheel arches and a 'floating' roof to give the car a look that's 'self-assured but likeable,' said VW brand's design boss Andreas Mindt. The production model will give VW a crucial competitor in the low-cost EV segment to help it fight the threat from the Chinese and faster moving traditional rivals such as Stellantis, Hyundai and Renault. Among its competitors will be the Dacia Spring, Leapmotor T03, Hyundai Inster and BYD Seagull. Other upcoming electric minicars include the new Renault Twingo and an expected electric replacement for Fiat Panda. The ID1 will return VW to the minicar segment five years after vacating when the brand stopped production of the Up minicar's combustion engine and full-electric versions. The ID Every1 concept is 3880-mm longer, slightly longer than the 3600-mm Up, slotting it below the ID. 2All, which is 4050 mm long. VW says the ID1 will comfortably seat four people with space for luggage in the 305-liter trunk. The car will have what VW calls a 'fundamentally new' powerful software architecture that will allow the company to update it with new functions throughout its life cycle. VW didn't give more detail, but current VWs use the MIB4 (modular infotainment matrix 4th generation) digital architecture for new models like the Golf and Tiguan including ChatGPT-enhanced voice control. The ID Every1 concept's interior has a large central digital touchscreen with a much smaller information display in front of the driver. The design includes a row of physical controls under the screen for the temperature control, seat heating and sound volume in a shift away from its previous focus on screen control. There are more buttons on the square-shaped steering wheel. Innovative features in the cabin include a central console that slides on a rail VW described as a 'multifunctional tool,' borrowing an idea from the much larger ID Buzz electric minivan. The ID Every1 concept's exterior borrows elements from classic VWs, including the a dead straight bottom window line and darkened grille bar between the front headlights, both of which featured on the first-generation Golf. 'The lack of trend-based effects means the ID Every1 will remain modern for many years and thus timeless,' VW said in a statement. Mindt said the designers wanted to give the car a 'stable' planted stance with the use of wide wheel arches and the resulting squeeze in the middle of the body. The 'likeable' element comes partly from the 'pupil' effect of the front headlights, he said. The ID1 was developed by Volkswagen Group's 'Core Brand Group' that includes Skoda, Seat and Cupra. Versions of the ID1 are expected to be rolled out by the other group volume brands. The ID2 hatchback and SUV are being developed alongside a model each for Skoda and Cupra.
