Meet Volkswagen’s I.D. Buggy concept, an electric-powered dune buggy making its debut at the Geneva car display, proves the emblem can have fun even because it commits itself to an electrified destiny. Perhaps the most vital aspect to understand about its far that it’s very incredible but also worthwhile is that the concept rides on the automaker’s vaunted MEB (modular electric powered force) platform to underpin a myriad of vehicles for various Volkswagen Group brands (and will even spawn some Ford EVs if that partnership does indeed expand). The idea has no roof or doors, showing MEB’s flexible nature, but it does have a weatherproof indoors with integrated seats and a digital cockpit.
The I.D. The two-seater hearkens back to California dune buggies like the Meyers Manx cruising beaches in the ’60s and ’70s. They frequently had a V.W. Beetle chassis, a flat-4 engine in the rear, and fiberglass bodies of every description. Buggy tries to recapture that spirit, inviting owners to convert it to a 2+2 or upload every other electric motor to the front axle to offer 4-wheel power.
Energy comes from a 62-kWh lithium-ion battery packaged in the floor; even as a 201-hp, the 228-lb-feet electric-powered motor is on the rear axle. The powertrain was optimized for brief spurts of electricity, with quite 155 miles, and V.W. says the I.D. The Buggy can hit sixty-two mph from a standstill in 7.2 seconds and has an electronically controlled top speed of 99 mph.
The hood sits up excessively like a proper buggy’s, and it has the needful tall fenders and rear give up, too, at the least visually, seeing that there’s no twin exhaust angled towards the sky. The head- and rear lights are ovals, and the LED-lit VW emblem quickly becomes an I.D. Designers painted the top 1/2 of the car in matte Fern Green and the lowest in a textured and darkish Gray Tech Blue to create the illusion that the frame is floating above the chassis. The family signature has been affixed on the front and rear.
Inside, the headrests and seatbelt latches are included in the seats. The hexagonal guidance wheel is covered in water-repellent Nappa leather-based, and a longboard is geared up with miniature wheels and tires to match the Buggy’s 18-inch rollers. BFGoodrich All-Terrain rubber is strapped down in return. There are also contact controls at the windshield header and an anti-slip ground.
The Buggy features an aluminum underbody guard and shielding facet-sill panels to defend the front axle, structure, and battery %. The latter is key to maintaining safety if you’ve kept up with what can manifest while lithium-ion cells are ruptured. There are steel tow hooks inside the bumper for pulling the Buggy out of a problem—or using it because the rescue car—even as the windshield body and rollover bar had been bolstered in case the open-air car is going vivid facet down. Should the sun be too much, a tarp can be stretched throughout the pinnacle for a chunk of shade.
This is not a large automobile: Its 104.3-inch wheelbase is longer than a Fiat 500L’s, but the V.W. is shorter than ordinary by using some 8 inches. The short front and rear overhangs accentuate its feel of stubbiness. Ground clearance is an outstanding nine. Four inches leaves several rooms for traversing deep sand.
The Buggy joins the growing I.D. Own family. The V.W. I.D. Hatch can be the first vehicle from the MEB platform designed to underpin 10 million electric vehicles—greater than 15 mainstream vehicles of all styles and sizes across four manufacturers—by the quiet of 2022. MEB can accommodate electric automobiles on both axles, and the battery packs are on the floor. They can be recharged as much as eighty percent in about 30 minutes using rapid charging—the I.D. Hatch received’t come to the U.S. But its follow-up, the I.D. Crozz crossover, will. As will the much-predicted I.D. Buzz electric-powered microbus due in 2022, and the I.D. Vizzion sedan. All will be made in the Zwickau, Germany, plant, which will be Volkswagen’s first devoted facility for assembling E.V.s.
The V.W. Group has any other PPE EV platform inside the works for high-overall performance luxury electric cars to roll out in 2022. The J1 platform Porsche uses the Taycan, and the modified MLB architecture below the Audi e-Tron are stopgaps.