Although the oversaturation of electric luxury cars tilts average pricing upwards, we’ve made some huge strides in mass-market EVs over the past decade. It’s awesome that electric cars exist in the $30,000 to $40,000 range that are way better than a Nissan Leaf, but lots of us can’t justify even that. So how about a new EV for even less? This is the Volkswagen ID. Every1, and it’s VW’s vision of a genuinely affordable electric car.
While we’ve already seen Volkswagen’s ID. 2all electric subcompact concept, the ID. Every1 sits below that in both pricing and model hierarchy. Pitched as a €20,000 electric car, it’s expected to be a full €5,000, or around $5,400 cheaper than the future ID.2, fighting price-wise with cars like the Nissan Versa.
Size-wise, the ID. Every1 sits between the up! and the Polo, although those probably aren’t great measures for North Americans so here’s a better one. With a length of 152.8 inches, this thing’s 1.4 inches longer than a Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback. However, Volkswagen claims its skateboard packaging and front-mounted electric motor give it more interior space than its footprint suggests, and we all like a car that’s small on the outside but relatively big on the inside.
What’s more, this thing certainly doesn’t look like a cost-cut special. Setting aside the fanciful 19-inch alloy wheels, there’s some brilliant stuff going on with the shape. The mask encapsulating the headlights is pure old-school Golf, the flared fenders add some drama to the surfacing, and virtually extending the rear window is a great nod to the beloved up! city car.
The result is the promise of an inexpensive car that doesn’t look cheap, but also one that’s not trying to imitate something way beyond its segment. Tricky feat to pull off, that.
Moving inside the ID. Every1, I spy physical controls, including a Kia-style horizontally mounted volume scroll wheel, dedicated heated seat switches, climate control temperature switches, and a whole bunch of real buttons on the steering wheel.
After the uproar around capacitive touch controls, a return to normal buttons is welcome, especially since they give a car like this a premium feel. It’s the same deal with having a separate digital gauge cluster, because cramming everything into the center screen would just feel like cost-cutting.
At the same time, Volkswagen hasn’t forgotten to keep the cabin of the ID. Every1 cheerful.
Splashes of orange adorn the door cards, steering wheel, air vents, and console accessories, and it’s the sort of brightness I adore. In the greater push to make everything in life from your rental car to your soap minimalist and premium, the world’s been almost eradicated of color. Bright hues now seem targeted only at the rich, and you know what? Screw that, give me some orange, or some lime, or some yellow, or some magenta. Speaking of color, the glovebox arrangement seems especially inspired, with one enclosed compartment and one big tray with orange elasticated straps, and that’s before we get to the center console.
Volkswagen has this vision that the center console of the ID. Every1 consists of modules and shelves that slide fore and aft, a bit like the console of the ID.Buzz on steroids. How about a color-coordinated Bluetooth speaker? An armrest-and-travel case thingy with orange accents? Sure, why not. The former should make mildly boisterous beach visits more spontaneous, while the latter simply seems like a nice place to rest an elbow.
So, this little electric Volkswagen concept looks great, seems quite practical, and should be relatively cheap when it reaches production. After all, €20,000 is about $21,551, or about the same price as a well-equipped Nissan Versa. There’s a good chance a production version simply won’t come to America, but that might be for good reason. It doesn’t sound like this Volkswagen would be an enormous hit on this side of the pond.
On paper, the specs of the ID. Every1 concept seem very Fiat 500e. We’re talking 155 miles of range, 94 horsepower, and a top speed of 81 mph. Considering there are parts of America where 80 mph seems like the general speed of traffic, a short-range right-lane proposition would be a difficult pill for American consumers outside of major metropolitan areas to swallow.
Still, the ID. Every1 looks just about perfect for Europe, and Volkswagen’s claim of a production version by 2027 is exceptionally exciting. While I picture the mass market model ditching the 19-inch wheels and growing larger mirrors, I’m hoping Volkswagen doesn’t stray too far from what it’s shown off today.
Top graphic credit: Volkswagen
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
Sorry, The $27,000 Electric Volkswagen ID.2all Isn’t Coming To America
-
The Volkswagen ID.2all Concept Is A First Look At VW’s Dirt-Cheap, $26,500 Electric Car
-
The VW ID.2all Concept Has Some Retro Fun With Its Instruments But I Have A Very Important Question
-
Why Volkswagen Was Smart To Kill Its Passat-Replacement For The United States
-
I’m Genuinely Surprised How Much I Liked The 2025 Volkswagen Taos, A Car Refreshingly Free Of BS
Please send tips about cool car things to tips@theautopian.com. You could even win a prize!
Looks fantastic, can’t wait to never get one
It looks cool, very MK IV Golf vibes, and I love that era of Golf.
ID.Every1 Except Americans
Something not quite right with the front and the headlights..
If this comes to the US, it will be as a compliance car. That range dooms it.
Americans will not get over range anxiety. Americans are used to travelling greater distances by car than our European friends. I’m not even going to bother arguing the irrationality of it because it’s not going away as an obstacle for selling EVs. Irrational things get in the way sometimes. It is what it is.
I love the look, though. Hopefully it’s a hint of the Golf to come.
If it has the interior size of a Mk7 it will be perfect.
I’m 6’4 and my kids are 5’10 and 6′, we all fit in it great along with our 85lb GSD and the hatch full of luggage.
I think that’s the ID 2. I’d be looking VERY hard at a GTI-ish version, whatever nomenclature they might use.
https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/world-premiere-of-the-id-2all-concept-the-electric-car-from-volkswagen-costing-less-than-25000-euros-15625
I want it – but I don’t need the large center screen.
Give me a base holder to set/connect my phone like the Up! had.
So it will be a more upmarket Dacia Spring, with the same limited usability, but good for one very specific use case: everyday driving, when you have another car for longer trips.
I mean, Dacia has a range estimator on its site: https://www.dacia.co.uk/hybrid-and-electric-range/spring-city-car/ev-simulators.html According to this, if you try to go anywhere outside of the city in the winter, you are limited to about 100 miles of range. And if you have to take a detour because of an accident or something…
Give it to mee!
And hope the base model also loses the iPad
Just needs quadrupled range and doubled top speed and the ability to take desert whoops and it’ll sell like hotcakes here.
Make it a longer/lower sedan, streamline it to a Cd value around 0.16, and highway range will probably approach 250 miles, while city range would still be 150-ish. You’d be able to re-gear it for a 110+ mph top speed without exceeding the continuous power capability of the drive system. And you could have leg room like a Rolls Royce for all passengers. All this for basically no additional production cost. Keep the price the same and sedans might sell again if something like this is on the market.
Bonus: insanely short charge times due to small battery capacity
insanely short charge times due to small battery capacity
Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. Smaller batteries tend to charge slower.
An individual cell in a small battery charges at the same rate as a cell in a bigger battery. The more cells you cram into a battery, the faster it charges because it has more cells accepting a charge.
In most modern EVs capable of using the Tesla Supercharger network, it is often the charger’s capability to deliver power, and not the C-rate of the cell being charged, that is the bottleneck.
In this sort of case, it does work that way if you choose a small kWh pack of sufficiently high-power density cells. It doesn’t change the last 10% of the charge cycle tapering to a relative trickle, but charging from 20% to 80% with a fixed amount of peak charge power will be faster with a smaller kWh pack than a larger kWh pack, in cases where the maximum C-rate during charge of the cell is not the limiting factor in its charging speed.
So, it basically need to be something else
Personally I think they should call this the Polo… or the ID1 Polo.
They do need go knock off the ID crap at some point, makes it easier to jumble up which models are which, and if the whole lineup is going electric anyway, it loses its novelty as a subbrand once everything is an ID
Polo.ID and Golf.ID get the point across well enough, and you can drop the .IDs down the line. I’m glad Mercedes is finally taking EQ out of the electric names.
I keep seeing this thing and thinking it the new electric version of the golf but in the space of the up. Looks like a decent city car. Maybe a bit pricey compared to its competitors. If that was $15k and the spicy one was $22 – 25k. They wold sell a ton. I think it will do ok. It’s pretty cheap and cheerful.
This thing is far to pleasant to have a home here.
Send it away!
It is not a EV for $22k. Every time a manufacture teases us with a future EV at a low price it always comes out at least $10k over what they promised.
Tariffs alone would add $5500 if it ever came here
That’s because Elon always overpromises and underdelivers
(If he delivers at all)
Others have delivered darn close to their more reasonable projections.
VW made a really good 2nd gen BMW i3…and this seems like a similarly great city car. IF this gets sold in the US I could see it being a tempting commuter at the right price.
If that showed up at a VW dealer near me, I’d probably go buy one this weekend.
Probably won’t see it in the US. Too bad.
Every time I read an article like this I feel like a child in 1960’s Soviet Russia looking at pictures of an American family’s trip to Disneyland.
That feeling is going to be ever more appropriate very quickly.
In mother America, they vote president to make country great like 1950s. They vote him in twice he make country great like 1850s. And I thought, ‘What a country!
I think Iran or Afghanistan would be more apt. Make sure you study your Bible or you could get sent to Guantanamo for blasphemy.
If Harold and Kumar could escape, so can I. Worst case scenario, at least they have a McDonald’s.
All hail the Homeland!
As always I sure hope the damn electric door handles don’t make it to the production version.
Looks nice. Could be a hybrid somehow, that would make it more “mass marketable”.
Since we’re already talking about cars that VW probably won’t sell in the USA, they already have a decent Golf hybrid. VW Golf eHybrid (2024) review: a few tweaks can make all the difference
Being an American car enthusiast is just reading 5 articles a week that are like,
“Honda/VW/Renault/Citroen have released a $15,000 electric hatchback that comes in nothing but pastel colors, was designed by the Norwegian Institute of Happiness, and will fully charge in 15 seconds. It will not be sold in the US because Donald Trump said it was gay and also wasn’t in the Bible.”
As if Trump knows what is even in the Bible, or how to hold one correctly. Not to mention he actively didn’t swear on one this time around. And yet his base will think he’s still the champion of biblical morals and ethics.
Hey, he can quote two Corinthians accurately
The US population is rather urban/suburban yet we have to only sell car for the small rural (or actually suburban but rural identifying) population. There are plenty of people who do not tow a camper, atv, and bass boat 300 miles to the grocery store every day. Sell some city cars here please.
They tried, and no one bought them.
Remember the Smart, Scion iQ, Fiat 500, Chevy Spark, etc?
They didn’t stop selling these because of some evil conspiracy, they were slow sellers with low margins.
It was more the second point than the first. Ford was selling 200k Fiestas a year for example, but the profit margins weren’t good enough.
Not in the US they weren’t.
Fiesta sales peaked in 2013 at 71K and were on a slow downswing most of the rest of the decade.
It’s possible to survive selling low margin cars, but it’s not easy when sales are declining.
Ford also didn’t do much to keep the Fiesta up-to-date.
Typical Ford.
People underestimate just how much Americans (especially older people) love small cars. We’re pigeonholed into certain models because manufacturers know how addicted we are to buying crap and understand we’ll buy something even if we don’t really like it all that much. They may as well just sell whatever makes them the most money.
I’m sorry, but this is crazy.
The 2010s had a remarkable array of small cars on offer, and almost without exception they suffered from poor sales that got worse over time. It’s not like only one or two manufacturers tried them and gave up, pretty much every mainstream automaker gave it a shot and decided it didn’t make sense.
There’s not some huge groundswell of demand hidden under the surface for brand new city cars. Used models don’t command a premium, like they would if there was real demand, they’re cheap to acquire everywhere.
Agreed! Hard to buy stuff the dealers will not put on their lots.
Were they on the lots. Like I had to special order a accent with a manual because dealerships near me would not stock manuals or entry level cars. No manuals or station wagons or cheap cars on lots then the manufactures say people do not want them.
If someone isn’t willing to order or go to another dealer to get what they want, on their second largest purchase, I’d argue they don’t actually want it that badly. I might settle for another brand of toothpaste if my preferred one is out of stock. I’m not settling for a car I don’t actually like and living with it for a decade! And car dealers order what sells. They have their bottom line at risk. They know what’s actually popular and what isn’t.
Again, entry level cheap cars with manual transmissions don’t command a premium used. There isn’t demand for them.
It’s another example of the commentariat mistaking their own preferences for the market at large.
I like manual transmissions, I like V10 engines, I like RWD coupes. The fact that there are few to no cars on the market with those options doesn’t mean the manufacturers or dealers are colluding against me, it just means what I like isn’t popular.
And sometimes it isn’t what’s being ordered but what the manufacturer plans and allocates – see: Toyota. A Yaris (whether Toyota or Mazda2-based) and a Corolla were maybe two grand apart. Estimated MPG were within 10% of each other but the Corolla offered more room, and Toyota built way more of the Corolla and would incentivize it more. Invoice prices were even slimmer between the two, so a Corolla could easily be had for the same or less and feels like a nicer car.
This VW wouldn’t be fighting with Versas, which is a considerably larger car (2 feet longer!). It would be fighting against the larger-still $23k Jetta in the same showroom that already gets 39mpg highway.
Well the pessimist in me says these will never hit the US or Canada as new vehicles anyways. I could see them doing well in Mexico, but they’d certainly not sell well in states like Texas. Even though it wouldn’t be the right fit for me, I do hope we get them in the US; cheap, cheerful and small is coming back, and it would be an incredible commuter/second car for a household.
I quite like this little beastie. I am one of those people who couldn’t ever use it due to the speed limitation and the length of my commute, but that car seems more inherently desirable to me than the Mini-e or the 500e.
I’m sure the speed limitation would be adjusted if it came to the US
This is the kind of EV I am looking for. A cheap third car for running errands/going to work. I do not need a luxury EV. This is about a close as VW have been to the original Bug in decades.
Go get yourself a west coast first gen Leaf. best little run around car ever.
Not going to buy an old used EV right now. Thanks though.
Why in the world does a city car have a fucking square steering wheel?
Ease of getting in and out of the vehicle?
This. Total eye roll when I saw this bit of silliness-hopefully doesn’t make it to production.
Concept cars gonna concept
Probably the same reason it needs flush hidden door handles. Gotta reduce that drag to increase range in your sub 25MPH stop and go driving.
Musk solving that problem by eliminating it completely /sarc