The styling of future ICE and electric cars from Volkswagen are set to converge as the brand tries to make its ID range seem less separate.
Volkswagen will also continue to invest in ICE architectures and technology and has put no end date on such investments, according to its new sales and marketing boss, Martin Sander.
Speaking to Autocar at the Paris motor show, Sander said he was still convinced “the future is electric” despite slowing demand for EVs.
He said he believed that Volkswagen had “done our part right, investing many billions in new vehicles, a complete line-up of vehicles on new platforms which we're offering globally”.
To that end, "I would wish for politicians to recognise that and just clearly commit to the fact that this is going to be the future and take all the doubts away from the consumers" by way of subsidies.
However, Sander added that “the ICE market globally is still that big that we can't put an end date to ICE development today”.
“Of course, sooner or later, there will be an end date, determined by customer demand," he continued. "As long as we see customers demanding ICE vehicles, we will have an offer.
"Sooner or later, there will be an end date, but I think it's too early to say when that is going to be, especially from a global perspective.”
When asked if that would lead to more convergence in the styling of ICE cars and EVs, Sander said: “Yes.”
The first example of this is set to be the production version of the Golf-sized ID2all concept, which has styling that’s more in line with traditional VWs than the firm’s ID EVs.
This raises the potential for two models in VW’s range called Golf: one an ICE car called Golf built on a traditional architecture, the other an EV called ID Golf, styled similarly in a more "likeable" way to now but built on an EV-specific architecture.
“I think it's really important that we have a clear Volkswagen design language," said Sander. "Going forward for the next launches, you will see much more clarity in the way Volkswagen vehicles are designed.”
Sander said that were no plans to drop the ID badge completely, even if the designs and names of VW EVs converge on something more traditionally VW.
“We want to build ID as the leading brand for electric vehicles,” he said, adding that ID “is becoming really a strong brand” in its own right.
But at the same time, he said that "Golf is such a strong brand in itself globally, not only in Europe".
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Both LP in Brighton and autoindustryinsider''s comments represent the dilemma motor manufacturers are facing - perhaps exacerbated by lack of Govt strategy and direction which has left consumers confused. There is no doubt that to gain the efficiency, space and cost savings EV specific platforms provide the best solution but because the switch to EVs has now plateaued manufacturers are now having to ride two horses. I think the price differential between EV and ICE will continue to narrow so auto makers have now got to make EVs more appealing. To my mind VW should be taking (no pun intended) a leaf out of Renault product development with the new R5 (and R4) and make the next ID.4 a reinvention of the Mk1 Golf rather than a copy of the Mk 8. Bring back style, fun within a sensible size footprint.
VW Group is losing a LOT of money, hence the plan to close plants and lay off staff for the first time in its history. Having two parallel car ranges under the VW brand can only extremely flawed. It's confusing, wasteful, extremely expensive. Goodness knows how they got this plan to fruition.