New Volkswagen ID.3: 10,000 pre-orders for all-electric hatch
Volkswagen nets more than 10,000 pre-bookings for the all-electric ID.3, just 24 hours after the limited edition model's reveal
More than 10,000 reservations have been placed for the all-electric Volkswagen ID.3 across Europe during its first 24 hours on sale. The launch edition variant became available for pre-order in the UK on 8 May 2019, with a pre-booking fee of £750.
The launch edition Volkswagen ID.3 1st Plus variant will have around 260 miles of range and 110kW fast charging as standard. First deliveries of the car - the first VW to be produced on the MEB all-electric platform - aren’t expected until summer 2020.
It’s already likely that the first ID.3s will be considerably more expensive than the stated goal of the car costing “as much as a well-specced diesel Golf”. The UK spec is the middle trim level of the ID.3 1st range of launch models, and VW has only confirmed that the entry point for the more expensive launch line-up will be “less than €40,000 in Germany”. That could mean that the very first batch of ID.3 models to arrive will cost up to £40,000 in the UK - although there’s no confirmation yet on the final figure.
Those British launch editions will come with a hefty range of standard kit, including satellite navigation, voice control, LED matrix headlights and a contrast-colour roof. Options are likely to include a panoramic glass roof and an augmented-reality head-up display.
Cars will also include 2,000kWh of free fast charging during the first year of ownership although for British customers, this may only really be useful on the fledgling IONITY fast-charging network. VW UK is still finalising what other points will be tied to the allowance.
Once the line-up moves beyond the launch spec 1st models the ID.3 will be available with three different battery sizes, offering ranges of 330km (205 miles), 420km (261 miles) and 550km (342 miles) under the WLTP testing regime. Volkswagen has reiterated that the starting price of the entry level 205 mile model will be "under €30,000" (£26,000). Battery sizes are 45kWh, 58kWh and 77kWh respectively.
All versions of the car should come with the ability to charge at up to 100-125kW, giving around 162 miles of range in 30 minutes. The ID.3 1st Plus will have the mid-range 58kWh battery capable of 261 miles, promising to match the likes of the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia e-Niro on real-world range.
VW says it will deliver 100,000 ID.3 models in 2020, the car’s first full year of production, and that this figure will rise to 110,000 units per year thereafter. The numbers on the ID.3 1st will be more limited, however, with just 30,000 examples available across 29 countries. There’s no word yet on how many of those cars have been allocated to the UK but the country is described as one of the main target countries for the model.
VW ID.3 to be a carbon-neutral car at launch
The first versions of the VW ID.3 will carbon-neutral at handover, the German firm has claimed. It's the first step on the road to a target of being a completely carbon-neutral company by 2050.
Volkswagen claims a variety of measures have been implemented to help reduce CO2 output during production of the ID.3, including converting factories to run on natural gas and greater use of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind power. VW says has also tasked its vast supplier base to use green energy and minimize their carbon emissions. It all means that if the ID.3 is recharged from green energy, it will remain CO2 neutral throughout its lifecycle.
Link to article in full -
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/97043/new-volkswagen-id3-10000-pre-orders-for-all-electric-hatch?amp
And Where Is Dyson in the Electric Vehicle Race?
Newly revealed details provide insight into Dyson's unique take on the EV
Dyson car concept as imagined by Autocar, with patent overlay.
Dyson’s electric car, due to arrive in 2021, is likely to be a long, sleek crossover-style premium saloon that will have roughly the same footprint as a Range Rover but with completely different proportions from the classic British 4x4 – and every other production car on the road.
Key details of billionaire inventor James Dyson's thinking on electric vehicles have dramatically emerged from three patent applications made public today. They cover the car’s ultra-long wheelbase, unique 'crossover' body, unprecedentedly large and thin wheels, short body overhangs and unusually 'fast' windscreen.
As a caveat, though, Dyson’s famously secretive people emphasise that their images – and therefore ours – don’t necessarily show exactly what their car will look like, only some design and engineering devices likely to be used by it.
The Dyson car, whose long-rumoured existence was confirmed late in 2017 when the inventor revealed plans to spend £2.5 billion of his own money on it, has been taking shape for the past two years. Work has been led by former Aston Martin chief engineer Ian Minards, who joined Dyson in September 2016 as vice president, automotive.
The new Dyson patents show nothing less than a complete rethink of big-car design and engineering conventions for the fast-approaching electric age. The refinements are aimed at delivering low weight and low aerodynamic drag to maximise performance and battery range while providing generous cabin space and first-class ride comfort, a particular Dyson priority.
Autocar spoke exclusively this week to company founder Sir James Dyson at his base in Singapore, where electric cars will ultimately be manufactured after an initial batch is built at the company’s £200 million automotive HQ currently under construction in Wiltshire.
This new facility already contains a dedicated technical centre for a 500-strong body of engineers – both Dyson regulars and hirings from car makers such as Tesla and Jaguar Land Rover. It will eventually spread across six comprehensively converted wartime aircraft hangars on the 517-acre former RAF Hullavington airbase near the M4 motorway in Wiltshire. A prototype manufacturing facility will open there next month and a 10-mile test track is also under construction.
In essence, the patents describe a car that is close to the five-metre length of a standard Range Rover but more than 40cm longer in the wheelbase, at 330cm, with 4-6cm more ground clearance than the Range Rover’s standard 22cm yet at least 25cm less overall height, at around 165cm tall.
The car’s layout allows excellent approach, breakover and departure angles, even in Land Rover terms, although there’s no suggestion that Dyson wants to build a farm vehicle. “It’s just that we can have these things for free,” he said.
This high-floor/low-roof layout is made possible because of the location of the car’s wide, long, thin underfloor battery, and the adoption of saloon-like seating positions for occupants, giving what Dyson described as a “command” driving position.
What's more, the compactness of the (probable) twin electric motors allows a cab-forward layout – assisted by the short nose and raked screen – which allows much of the car’s total length to be used for accommodation. The Dyson patents propose a potential seven-seater (with centre-row and rear-row passengers mounted higher than those in front for good visibility).
A saving of around 10cm on overall width is also possible, said Dyson, because of the lack of a bulky internal combustion engine plus the adoption of narrow-section tyres on big-diameter wheels that need smaller wheel envelopes let into the body. A particular Dyson preoccupation is keeping the new car’s frontal area to a minimum, a major contributor to aerodynamic efficiency.
Dyson confirmed that the car will have an aluminium body, mostly because he and his engineers feel carbonfibre structures haven’t reached the level of maturity they believe the electric project needs. Steel is deemed too heavy.
Dyson’s patent applications contain no powertrain details – beyond a theoretical suggestion that the car could be battery, hydrogen or even petrol-hybrid powered. But Sir James Dyson confirmed that his company is researching two different types of solid-state battery, understood by laymen to be the next big thing after the lithium ion type used almost universally in EVs today.
Dyson’s solid-state battery research is proceeding in four linked global locations, including the UK. It seems a certainty that these advanced batteries (bringing advantages in energy density and lightness) will eventually be used in the Dyson car, although there are unconfirmed suggestions that lithium ion may power the earliest cars.
Sir James Dyson also won't publicly specify his car’s motors, except to suggest that more than one motor would make sense because that would increase the potential for power regeneration when the car is coasting and braking. Dyson high-speed electric motor designs are among the world’s best and most compact, so the company will build its own motors for this application and package them very compactly.
There’s enough about the specification of a five-metre car with seven-seat capability, powered by an ultra-expensive battery and riding on very special wheels, suspension and brakes to suggest that this will most definitely be a premium car.
Hiring the former Aston Martin chief engineer (Ian Minards) and inviting a former BMW big-board member, Ian Robertson, onto your board of director is another indication. Dyson himself mentioned Range Rovers and Teslas as he discussed his new car, suggesting that, in a money sense at least, they were rivals. But the only speculation about price – and it's rather idle – seems to be on which side of £100,000 of today’s money a Dyson car will sit.
The car will be sold globally and seems likely to have particular appeal in China. No production volume is spoken of, but it seems clear from the size of the engineering effort that this is much more than a bespoke, hand-made effort. The Dyson name, and the company’s global reputation for unusual, progressive, high-quality products that push at existing boundaries, will surely help it find markets. Everything we’ve seen points to a well-backed, credible, long-lasting rule-breaker of an electric luxury car. Let’s hope we’re right.
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