There will be no Volkswagen ID.1 with either the Seat or Skoda logo. The group's technical director Kai Grünitz denies this.
The Volkswagen Group currently has no plans to build Skoda, Seat or Cupra versions of the upcoming Volkswagen ID.1.
According to the group's technical director, Kai Grünitz, the Volkswagen ID.1 is being developed as a standalone model. He tells Autocar in an interview.
– It raises a bit of a question about why we are coming (with the ID.1, ed.) in 2027? We see that the market is developing right now, especially on the A00. (Market for city cars, ed.)
– We think it will grow in the next few years. So we really think that 2027 is the right time to come out with the car. Especially with all the rumors about combustion engines and how we are getting rid of them in Europe.
– So I think 2027 is the right time for the ID.1, and if the market really picks up, we can easily decide to bring Cupra or Skoda models. But that's not the plan now.
Volkswagen ID.1 must be itself – but maybe not forever
Uncertainty about the growth of the electric city car market in the coming years is one of the reasons why Volkswagen is holding back.
However, Grünitz has suggested that the ID.1's platform could eventually be used for such models if the model, which is supposed to save Volkswagen's entire economy, performs well.
The Volkswagen ID.1, which will probably come to Denmark with a starting price of 150,000 kroner, is built on an updated version of the so-called MEB platform called MEB Entry.
A platform that will also be used for the upcoming Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq models. The three models have been developed in parallel, and the VW Group sees the economic benefits of scale as crucial.
The previous Volkswagen Up, which can be considered the ID.1's spiritual predecessor, was also realized through parallel development with the almost identical Skoda Citigo and Seat Mii.
But that doesn't make Grünitz deviate from the idea that the ID.1 should be exclusively a Volkswagen.
The Volkswagen ID.1 is also the first car that Volkswagen has been able to develop in 'reduced time', as the Germans call it.
This can be translated into more use of software developed in collaboration with American Rivian. Just as the Germans have spent time on virtual tests instead of real kilometers on the roads in connection with the development of the car.
According to Kai Grünitz, this approach to developing brand new cars means that Volkswagen can save up to 3 years of the process.
