E-Up and E-Golf were just the prelude: With the ID family, VW finally wants to take the switch to electric mobility seriously. At the beginning of the changeover is the ID Neo, battery brother of the Golf. The new model will not be available until early 2020, but the prototypes are already on the way.
Frank Welsch tests the electrical emergency. And you can take that literally. Because the VW development manager is currently on the road in South Africa and is testing the ID Neo, the first car in a new model family with which VW wants to swim with the electricity quite late and finally want to really arrive in the era of cordless cars. After all, the ID is not a half-baked retrofit like e-Up and e-Golf, but was developed completely around the battery for the first time. That is why the Lower Saxony are practically starting from scratch and have a correspondingly tight program for development and testing. "The ID models don't have much more in common with the rest of the range than the door handles, a few hinges and the 12-volt battery," says Frank Bekemeier, who heads the development department.
Usually this happens in secret. But because the competition is already one, in some cases even two vehicle generations ahead, they cackle in Wolfsburg for an exception, even over un laid eggs, and even ask for their first test drive with their prototypes. It is no coincidence that they remind of a good old friend in terms of format and performance: the Golf. "Because we want to address the same customers with the first ID model," says Welsch and therefore outlines comparable key data: the length will be somewhere around 4,25 meters, the power of the electric motor on the rear axle is around 150 kW / 204 PS, the top speed at best at 180 km / h and the price at less than 30.000 euros - "as much as you would have to pay for a similarly well-equipped TDI".
Shortly afterwards, however, the parallels between the old and the new world are already exhausted. Bad news, because the ID Neo can only reach a WLTP range of 550 kilometers with the largest of its three battery packs and thus keep up with the thirstiest Golf, while the entry-level model must be plugged in after 330 WLTP kilometers. And in the good, because the electric debut uses all the advantages of the new architecture, so it has ten centimeters more wheelbase and offers more space. Especially because the Lower Saxony have consequently left out the cardan tunnel, which would otherwise reduce the footwell in the rear.
In addition, the Neo gets a cockpit that lives up to its name. Instead of the usual layout with a large screen under a wide hood, there is only a small display that is free behind the steering wheel and next to it an even larger touchscreen. The graphics are fresh and colorful, instead of switches there are only sensor fields everywhere, the next generation of head-up display flickers on the windscreen and with the Sparach control without learned commands and feedback in the new LED strip under the windscreen the dialogue between man and machine can reach a new dimension.
Driving with the ID Neo, on the other hand, is as unspectacular as with a golf. Get in, start, drive off - even the new controls are somehow easy to handle. The fact that you still have to adjust a little is less due to the set-up of steering and chassis, which is still far from being final. And also not at rest on board, because at least with the prototypes, the wind is constantly tugging at the camouflage film and the tires are rolling too loudly. But it is to blame for it is much smaller turning circle. Because there is more space in the engine compartment, the wheels can keep turning and the ID Neo scratches the bend faster. He doesn't even need as much space as an Up for a 180 degree turn. It can't hurt to lead such a radical change of course.
The importance of the ID Neo for the VW brand and the entire group can hardly be overestimated. It is not for nothing that his platform is said to carry more than two dozen models by 2022 alone, making the greatest contribution to ensuring that every fifth VW with battery instead of petrol tank will be sold by 2025. As always, you are a little late. But things are getting serious about the electric revolution in Wolfsburg, too, and men like Welsch and Bekemeier are well advised to try out this emergency greenishly: "Because we cannot afford mistakes with this ambitious plan."
Benjamin Bessinger / SP-X