Do automobiles just like the VW ID.four spell the tip of the gasoline station? [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.—Volkswagen in 2021 looks like a fairly completely different firm than Volkswagen circa 2015. The corporate has reworked itself within the wake of dieselgate, and it is discovered forgiveness within the arms of American customers as evidenced by skyrocketing SUV gross sales. VW has additionally thrown itself wholeheartedly into electrification, making use of the strategy of a extremely modular platform that can be utilized to construct a variety of battery electrical automobiles together with hatchbacks thought of too small for the US and that electrical bus everybody loves a lot.
In North America, the ID.four is the tip of the electrical spear, an electrical crossover that is pitched completely at our automotive mode du jour. We have already pushed the ID.four a few occasions: briefly as a pre-production prototype, then for a few days on residence turf. It wasn’t notably flashy, and there have been a few issues that wanted tweaking. But, general, we have been impressed. (And we weren’t alone.)
At launch, the ID.four was solely accessible in a single configuration: an 82 kWh (gross, 77 kWh useable) lithium-ion battery powering a 201 hp (150 kW), 229 lb-ft (310 Nm) everlasting magnet synchronous electrical motor on the rear axle. However American automotive consumers like energy, they usually love all-wheel drive (for probably misguided causes about traction and grip, however that is neither right here nor there).
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