The Volkswagen ID.4 is the next electric car America is getting from Volkswagen, following the death of the e-Golf, a car I certainly have never forgotten. The ID.4 was supposed to get here by the end of this year in some places, though according to a new report, we’re now going to have to wait a little longer.
The ID.4 has a range of 250 miles, will start at $39,995, and go from zero to 62 mph in 8.5 seconds. That is to say I don’t think America is clamoring for this car, exactly, so I’m not sure this delay is terribly meaningful. But it is funny because Automotive News says that it is in part because Volkswagen is scrambling to get its shit together in Europe.
The U.S. rollout of the Volkswagen ID4 has been delayed from late December until late in the first quarter of 2021, in part to shift output of the electric compact crossover to markets in Europe, where the company is facing large fines for not hitting emissions targets, Automotive News has learned.
Originally, VW planned to begin delivering at least a few ID4 models in California and other zero-emission vehicle states before the end of the year, with a 50-state launch across its network of 650 U.S. dealerships planned for the first half of 2021. It will now launch the ID4 across the U.S., instead of just ZEV states, with initial deliveries slated for March, according to sources familiar with the plan.
A VW spokesman on Friday confirmed the amended timeline, saying in a statement to Automotive News: “We are executing our plan. We will still have a few hundred vehicles for customer events and drive programs early next year, with the 50-state retail launch starting in March, timed to the spring selling season. We want this launch to have the biggest impact possible with a steady cadence once ID.4 starts to arrive at dealerships.”
This all started with the bungling of the launch of the ID.3, the launch of Volkswagen’s most important new car in decades. That delayed ID.4 production, and that will now apparently delay the introduction of the ID.4 to the U.S.
Increasingly, I’m wondering why Volkswagen opted to ship any German-made ID.4s to the United States at all, given Volkswagen’s plan to build the ID.4 at its Chattanooga plant from 2022. It won’t be a huge number, at any rate; Automotive News says that VW thinks it will sell something north of 20,000 ID.4s in the U.S. next year. To put that into context: Volkswagen sold just over 100,000 Jettas in America last year alone.
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