Volkswagen Ireland has just thrown something of a pricing hand grenade into the small electric vehicle market with the full reveal of the new ID. Polo and confirmation of its Irish starting price.
That price will be €19,885 inclusive of SEAI grant and VRT relief, and that will get you a 115hp electric motor driving the front wheels, with a 37kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery and a range of up to 329km.
Alan Bateson, director of Volkswagen Ireland, said: “The ID. Polo marks a defining moment for Volkswagen in Ireland. This is the electric car the market has been waiting for, taking everything people trust about the Polo and reimagining it for a fully electric future that is smarter, more desirable and built for everyday Irish driving.
"Launching at a price below €20,000 sends a clear signal of Volkswagen Ireland’s ambition: to make electric mobility truly accessible, without compromise.”
For comparison’s sake, the just-announced new Hyundai Ioniq 3 — which is comparable in terms of size and performance to the ID. Polo — will cost around €28,000 in its basic form. The ultra-compact Hyundai Inster, a small EV with a range of 327km in its cheapest model, has a price tag of €19,595. The ID. Polo’s biggest rival - arguably - is the Renault 5 E-Tech, which has a starting price of €25,995 for the base model with the 40kWh battery and a 312km range.
The ID. Polo represents the re-invention of Volkswagen’s electric car lineup, far more so than the updated ID.3 Neo or the incoming re-naming of the ID.4 electric SUV as the ID. Tiguan. This is the first model to combine a classic VW badge with fully-electric power (unless you count the Transporter van, of course…) and is part of VW boss Thomas Schafer’s plan to remind car buyers of why they love VW so much in the first place.
Key to that is the style and the ID. Polo - penned by VW Group head of design Andreas Mindt - takes classic Polo shapes and details and updates them into a clean, functional design that is the antithesis of the retro charm of the Renault 5.
According to Mindt, the new ID. Polo is so family-friendly that its design process began not in a studio, but in the kitchen of Stefan Walburg, VW’s head of exterior design. “Some of the first ideas for the ID. Polo were sketched at Stefan’s kitchen table - kids running around, everyday life in the background, and a very open discussion about what a future Volkswagen should be. That was more than three years ago. Shortly after, we presented the ID. 2all concept car in Hamburg. The feedback we received - from media and our dealer network - gave us confidence to continue exactly in this direction and bring the idea into production. [This is] a car that doesn’t need to explain itself — it simply feels like a Volkswagen.”
Inside, the ID. Polo represents another sea change in Volkswagen’s electric-car template as it seeks to take on the ever-encroaching Chinese brands. Buttons are back, while the ID. Polo has a big touchscreen, including software co-developed with Google for a much slicker interface than has been the case recently with VW Group screens. It also features physical buttons on the steering wheel and, for cabin temperature and stereo volume, on the centre console.
The ID. Polo is 4.05 metres long, about the same as the current petrol-only Polo hatch, which will stay on sale for a while yet alongside its new EV sibling. But greater packaging efficiency on the MEB+ electric car platform means that VW can claim as much cabin space as a much larger Golf.
Similar to the Hyundai Ioniq 3, the ID. Polo gets a split-level boot, with a ‘normal’ boot up top, and a vast under-floor storage area underneath, adding up to a total of 441 litres of luggage space — compared to the petrol-engined Golf’s 380 litres and the mere 385 litres offered by the ID.3 Neo.
VW boss Schafer attributes the ID. Polo’s massive luggage space to personal experience - when Schafer’s first child arrived, he was driving a Polo and struggled to fit the folded-up baby buggy into the boot. No such mistakes this time around.
Speaking at the car’s reveal, Schafer said: “The ID. Polo is part of the Electric Urban Car Family. This year alone, we will bring four new all-electric models in the small and compact car segment from three brands to market.”
The four cars Schafer mentions include the ID. Polo as well as the sporty Cupra Raval, the more practical Skoda Epiq, and the upcoming VW ID. Cross, a compact EV crossover. All of these cars will be built in the Seat-Cupra factory in Martorell, near Barcelona.
There will, of course, be more expensive versions of the ID. Polo. As well as the basic €19,000 model with its small battery, there will be a larger battery model featuring a 52kWh battery using more energy-dense nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry, with a 211hp motor and a range of up to 454km. There will also be a 135hp motor option for the smaller battery, and we know that there will be an ID. Polo GTI, with 225hp and tweaked suspension and steering, in very short order.
There may also be something with even more vim than that — there are rumours of an ID. Polo R, with four in-wheel electric motors and a supercar-baiting power output. Put that one on the Christmas list.
You won’t have to wait until Christmas for the regular ID. Polo, though. Order books open in July, and the first Irish deliveries should be on the ground here by early Autumn.
