While it’s slowed down the pace of EV rollouts, Volkswagen isn’t giving up on all-electric power and will debut a new battery version of the Polo at the Munich Auto Show next week. The little hatchback also will mark a transition in its naming strategy that VW hopes will make it easy for shoppers to figure out which EV is which. Headlight.News has more.
The VW ID.Polo in semi-camouflaged form.
Baseball fans know the old line, “You can’t tell the players apart without a scorecard.” The same can be said for many battery-electric vehicles which rely on cryptic alphanumeric badging. Volkswagen models like the ID.4 and ID.5 are prime examples.
The automaker veered off course a bit when it introduced its all-electric microbus, dubbing it the ID.Buzz. Now, VW says it will make things easier for potential buyers of all its EVs going forward.
That transition is set to begin with the upcoming launch of the all-electric version of the automaker’s subcompact hatchback set to make its debut at IAA Mobility 2025 next week. It will be dubbed the ID.Polo to distinguish the EV from the gas-powered Polo that will remain in production for now.
Familiar Names
The VW ID.Buzz signaled a likely shift to a more familiar naming strategy.
Like a number of competitors, such as Hyundai Motor Group and Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen wanted to clearly distinguish its EVs from gas-powered models. The idea was to give the new products distinctive identities and accent their high-tech nature.
But that approach has proven to be questionable. For one thing, it requires a hefty marketing budget to support the launch of entirely new model names and means those EVs don’t carry over any positive brand identity conventional products might have, several analysts told Headlight.News. That’s why brands like Chevrolet and Ford have chosen more traditional approaches with products like the Equinox EV and Mustang Mach-E, respectively.
It’s time to reverse course – at least somewhat — VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said in a statement, “Our model names are firmly anchored in people’s mind,” he said, adding that, “The ID Polo is just the beginning.”
New ID.Polo to debut in Munich
The Volkswagen ID. 2all concept car previewed the production ID.Polo.
The all-electric ID.Polo will debut in partially camouflaged form on Sept. 7, with the automaker then set to show the uncovered EV three days later at t the IAA Mobility show in Munich.
The subcompact will give VW another option at a time when it is facing increased competition, not only from traditional brands like Ford, Toyota, Kia, Peugeot and Citroen, but also a flood of new Chinese arrivistes that have begun gobbling up Europe’s sizable EV market. BYD has become one of the segment’s big players with its little Atto 2.
“A model like the Polo shows just how powerful a name can be: it stands for reliability, personality and history. That’s precisely why we are giving our ID models names that arouse emotions and are anchored in people’s everyday lives,” said VW sales head Martin Sander.
More Munich News
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What we know about ID.Polo
The VW ID Polo and ID Polo GTI.
The EV originally debuted in concept form in 2023 as the ID.2all concept.
A variant of the production ID.Polo also will debut at the Munich Motor Show. Based on the ID.GTI concept, it will return in production form as the ID.Polo GTI sometime in 2026. It is expected to punch out a sportier 223 horsepower and the classic instant torque that only electric motors can deliver.
Both models will be based on the MEB+ platform, an updated version of the architecture used for the original Volkswagen ID.4 EV. A single electric motor will send power to the front wheels on ID.Polo and ID.Polo GTI models. Electric versions will be the same length as gas Polo models, though come in slightly taller and wider. And, with battery packs mounted under the load floor, that frees up some space normally devoted to an engine compartment, translating into larger cabins than the gas-powered Polo.
Expect the ID.Polo to start around the equivalent of U.S. $29,000, depending upon country. As with the bigger ID.3, however, there currently are no plans to bring the little EV to the U.S.
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