VW to release ID.4 and ID.5 in Australia next year, with ID.3 to follow

Australian drivers could get their hands on the Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV and ID.5 electric crossover by the end of 2023, with the popular ID.3 likely to follow some 12 months later after a mid-cycle refresh.

Volkswagen has held back from introducing its ID electric vehicle range in Australia. In 2021, the company’s local boss Michael Bartsch said the ID series may not reach Australia “for years” because of the former Coalition government’s “third world” stance on EVs.

But times have changed, and with an EV-friendly Labor government now at the helm and a national EV discount plan locked in for July 1, VW Australia has more bargaining chips on the table.

Speaking with The Driven, VW Australia communications manager Paul Pottinger said production had already been approved that would see the ID.4 and ID.5 arrive in Australia in 2024, but the local offshoot is trying to fast-track that process to late 2023.

“Our mission in life at the moment is to bring that forward so the cars are in the country next year,” Pottinger said.

“Ideally, the ID.3 would start a year after the ID.4 and ID.5,” he says.

All three have officially been “approved” for Australia by Volkswagen HQ – it is now just a matter of convincing the powers that be at Volkswagen AG to bring those dates forward.

“We’re trying to bring that (production date) forward by about 16 weeks,  so closer to the middle of 2023,” says Pottinger.

“So, if we’re successful in that, we’d have the ID.4 and ID.5 on sale by end of next year.”

And it wouldn’t be in small numbers, says Pottinger. In terms of volume, he expects the semiconductor shortage will have alleviated by then. And Volkswagen Australia doesn’t want to do an ID launch locally by halves.

To wit, Volkswagen HQ has said that its local arm can have  “as many as we can get unspecifically,” says Pottinger.

“The semiconductor shortage should be in abbeyance by that point, in fact we expect close to previous levels of supply to start being felt early in the new year (of 2023 for ICE vehicles),” he says.

Both the ID.4 and ID.5 would then arrive ahead of a mid-cycle refresh.

“It’s also a propitious time in those car’s model cycles to be coming here,” he says, adding that, “We won’t see the ID.3 until after a mid-cycle refresh.”