VW electric ID hatchback revealed in leaked photo, order page opens tomorrow

There’s just over 24 hours left until the first of Volkswagen’s much anticipated ID series, the signature ID hatchback, is opened up for orders in Europe.

As the German carmaker readies itself for what hopes will be a new turning point in its 81 year history, a new photo of a camouflaged prototype of the all-electric hatchback has come to light via social news site Reddit.

The red-and-blue zebra striped prototype of the ID, which is to be the first electric vehicle built on VW’s modular MEB platform, is the best look we’ve had so far for the prototype – VW hasn’t given away much other than the typical shadowed profile and some outlined vectors on their ID web page.

A side profile at an angle just low enough to properly define a slightly rounded bonnet suggests a nod to VW’s iconic Beetle, although there have been questions raised about a hump that can be seen just in front of the windscreen that has no obvious purpose.

The back of the vehicle is definitely a hatch, as opposed to the Beetle’s rounded trunk, and the lights a match to VW’s own web images.

Production for the ID hatchback will commence in Europe’s fall in Zwickau, where the German carmaker is busy preparing its plant with an innovative training program for its 7,700 staff that includes activities such as three “E-motyion” rooms in which employees solve puzzles whilst learning about the history of electric mobility.

As Volkswagen advances its plan to build 22 million electric vehicles within the next 10 years, its Zwickau plant will eventually make only vehicles based on its pure electric MEB platform.

In the lead up to its launch on May 8, 2019, VW is marketing the ID via five sub-campaigns under an umbrella campaign it calls the eManifesto “ID.Volkswagen Just Electric”.

It says it will ramp up the campaign in the approaching weeks of the German Football Association’s cup final, peaking finally at the ID’s global unveil in Frankfurt at the 2019 IAA International Motor Show in September.