VW opens preorders for the ID.3, its first long-range electric car

After the terrible treatment I received as a Volkswagen TDI customer, I will never buy another VW. Period. They fraudulently sold me a car, then managed to finangle their way out of any financial restitution by putting up not only extensive hurdles for customers who wanted to opt for restitution instead of return, they then penalized customers who experienced delays due to their internal system faults by simply rejecting applications for restitution that were even a little bit out of spec.<p>Never. Again.

Interesting (and great that the bigger manufacturers are starting to come through with their electric offerings) but the price:range ratio doesn&#x27;t seem great compared to the Tesla model 3?<p>It&#x27;s hard to be objective with all of the strongly pro- and anti-Tesla nonsense flying around, but I&#x27;ve had a sneaking suspicion for a while that once the market matures a little (with eg Audi, VW, Porsche all offering their first-gen EVs) Tesla&#x27;s offerings will be seen as more revolutionary (or at least, taken less for granted) than they currently are...

This is great news and now we need them to deliver (and not delay&#x2F;back out). I hope they sell a ton. We really need an entrenched player to fully commit to selling EVs. If VW goes all-in, everyone else will have to follow suit. Tesla needs to keep the pressure on.

What game industry and preorders have taught us — never do any preorders until the real thing is out and first reviews start coming in.

I&#x27;m completely clueless about electric engines so I was wondering if, besides range, there are other attributes one should look for in an electric car like HP and that kind of stuff? In other words, are all electric motors so similar that range is the only differentiator?

I like that electric cars are starting to have smaller hoods. With the battery located at the bottom of the car and the electric motors at or in the wheels, there is no need for a long hood.<p>Just switching to electric will not solve our mobility problems. Cars need to get smaller and lighter and we need fewer of them, not more.<p>I&#x27;m looking forward to what&#x27;s on the horizon in the european L7e category (up to 450kg w&#x2F;out battery), for example the Microlino. DLR is also doing some interesting research in this area with their NGC Safe Light Regional Vehicle (SLRV). They recently did some crash tests with promising results: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dlr.de&#x2F;dlr&#x2F;desktopdefault.aspx&#x2F;tabid-10122&#x2F;333_read-29340&#x2F;#&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;31720" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dlr.de&#x2F;dlr&#x2F;desktopdefault.aspx&#x2F;tabid-10122&#x2F;333_r...</a>

Is there a reason to start this new model name vs simply calling it the 2020 &quot;eGolf&quot;? Is the eGolf basically a hack design and the ID3 a true, ground-up electric design?

I hope this platform succeeds. I&#x27;ve been following the planned microbus refresh eagerly, and it supposedly will be built on the same.

&gt; buyers will get up to 2,000kWh of charging for free during the first year.<p>That&#x27;s about £250 worth of electricity - if you charge solely at home. From fast chargers, that&#x27;s about £750 - £1,000.<p>Not a bad incentive if you do lots of long journeys and <i>need</i> to charge at a motorway service station. But perhaps not as generous as it sounds for more typical use.

Maybe details are not visible but overall body shape can be figured out and... unless it&#x27;s full placeholder then for me it&#x27;s completely disappointing. I&#x27;m aware that design was decided, created, analyzed and discussed by teams of highly competent people but for some reason it&#x27;s against my &quot;common sense&quot;. Tesla and this ID.3 are in similar price range [1] and Tesla just looks way better, customers who are buying EV are not traditionalists and I&#x27;m pretty sure that modern look is something as important as modern vehicle features. ID.3 aesthetics are just like old boring ICE cars (same thing can be said about audi etron)<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19870034" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19870034</a>

I&#x27;ve seen a few e-golf&#x27;s charging on the streets in the past few weeks in Berlin. I assume these are pre-production models. Looks like a normal Golf aside from the charging port.<p>From my understanding, this is a big step for VW. However, short term, they will likely have range and production capacity issues, just like Tesla did not exactly hit the ground running. I would not be surprised if this is merely a stop gap solution until they get cheaper&#x2F;better models out. Short term, Tesla could really make VW hurt by ramping up production and dropping price and competing with both their ICE and non ICE offerings.

Are they really naming it after the MP3 tag format?

Way too expensive for mass market appeal.<p>The basic Golf costs about 17,000 while the ID.3 starts at 30,000 Euro&#x27;s.

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Why does it still look like a concept car?

Time to nationalise by the Council of European Union and rename it into <i>Bundeswagen</i>, because it is no more an automobile for <i>folks</i>.

Based on th emissions scandal, I&#x27;m unlikely to ever consider a VW vehicle, period. Even though most of the auto industry is also full of dirty money grubbing scum.<p>Not sure what the best move is, until giving it more thought I&#x27;m avoiding purchasing another vehicle.

Christ they couldn&#x27;t come up with a better image than that?? Is that really what the thing looks like?

As a German - this is really embarrassing. Old managers, old technology, old dealer infrastructure - painted in freaking childish colors. Really guys? That’s the best we can do...?

I don&#x27;t know how we&#x27;re trusting a company that lied about emissions to create the next generation of electric cars. After the TDI and TSI scandals, I know many people who hope this brand does not survive.<p>I will never buy a VW, Porsche, or Audi if my life depended on it.