VW’s electric ID.3 model draws flood of orders from new customers
Demand for flagship EV from younger drivers boosts carmaker’s effort to take on Tesl
Volkswagen’s first purpose-built electric car, the ID.3, has attracted tens of thousands of pre-orders from younger customers new to the VW brand as its plan to overtake market pioneer Tesla picks up pace.
About 85 per cent of the 37,000 people who have paid to reserve an ID.3 had not bought VWs before. In contrast, 85 per cent of sales of the German carmaker’s popular Golf hatchback are to repeat customers.
“The ID.3 is igniting with a population that is about 10 years younger than the average profile [of our customers], which is around 58 in Europe,” Jürgen Stackmann, sales boss for the VW brand, told the Financial Times.
Deliveries of the ID.3, which was delayed by software problems, are due to begin in September. The success of the model’s launch is crucial to VW’s ambition to eclipse Tesla and become the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles.
Unlike other electric vehicles already marketed by VW which are variants of petrol- or diesel-fuelled cars, the ID.3 has been designed using the carmakers’ tailor-made underlying modular chassis platform, called MEB.
Since VW started accepting orders through dealerships for the ID.3 last Monday, the model briefly overtook the Golf to become the company’s biggest-selling private retail car in Germany, according to Mr Stackmann.
However, he expressed disappointment that about 85 per cent of the electric hatchback’s orders were from men, a similar level to the brand as a whole.
“I had hoped for more female share,” Mr Stackmann said, adding that he was surprised most pre-orders had come from customers in urban and suburban areas, rather than rural regions where installing home-charging points is generally easier. The model has a range of approximately 400km so is expected to appeal even to more rural customers.
Most ID.3 customers were also “techies”, he said, and were buying a second car for their household.
After the fallout of the diesel emissions scandal, the Wolfsburg-based carmaker has committed to electrifying its 12 brands and has pledged to spend at least €33bn on producing 75 battery-powered models over the next decade.
Group boss Herbert Diess said success in rolling out its future range of electric vehicles could boost VW’s market value.
“In five to ten years, the most valuable company in the world will be a mobility company,” he wrote. “It could be Tesla, Apple or Volkswagen.”
Despite production delays, Mr Stackmann said VW was on track to deliver between 60,000 and 70,000 new electric vehicles this year, and produce about 100,000 units of the ID.3 and its sport-utility vehicle successor, the upcoming ID.4. Tesla sold more than 90,000 of its electric vehicles last quarter.
He also revealed that the company had sold out of battery-powered versions of its combustion-engine models, including the eGolf and eUp, helping VW avoid fines from the EU, which has imposed strict fleet-wide emissions targets for carmakers in Europe.
Germany recently doubled its subsidy for electric vehicles as part of a €130bn stimulus package designed to restart the economy after the coronavirus pandemic brought it to a halt. In total, customers in the country can get €9,000 off the price of a battery-powered car.