Here’s The Inside Of The VW ID Polo

‘Out with the old, in with the new’ is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot at this time of year. Except in the case of the VW ID Polo, the German giant’s all-important new electric supermini, it’s the other way around. 

Volkswagen has just given us a look at the production-ready interior of its smallest ID model yet, and there’s cause for celebration, because the haptic controls that have made the cabins of the brand’s first-gen bespoke EVs a misery to operate are gone in favour of some good old-fashioned physical controls. Hooray!

The climate controls are now handled by a bank of physical rocker switches below the screen, a similar arrangement to the one already found in cars made by Stellantis and the Renault Group. There are proper buttons on the new squircular steering wheel too, dealing with things like cruise control, volume and adjusting the instrument display, although volume can also be played with using a rotary dial on the centre console.

There is, of course, still a screen, because there would presumably be rioting in the streets if a mass-produced car arrived without such a thing these days. It’s got a fully digital instrument display too, although there’s a cute retro mode that can turn it into a digital facsimile of the dials from a Mk1 Golf.

Material-wise, it goes heavy on fabrics, which cover the dash, doorcards and centre consoles, all with a view to creating ‘an inviting and friendly atmosphere’.

VW chief designer Andreas Mindt says: “We have created an interior that feels like a friend from the very first contact. Clear physical buttons provide stability and trust, warm materials make it appealing, and charming details such as the new retro views of the instruments show the typical Volkswagen wink.”

It’s a big relief Volkswagen’s gone down this route, because you can expect this basic interior architecture to underpin not just the ID Polo, but a swathe of other small EVs to come from VW, beginning with the production version of the ID Cross. It'll feature in sibling cars from other VW Group brands, too – the near-production Skoda Epiq has already given us a glance at this setup, and the Cupra Raval will likely feature something similar too.

As for the ID Polo, it’ll arrive in May in its more pedestrian guises before VW’s first crack at an electric GTI debuts later in the year. The latter will pack 223bhp and a front e-diff, taking aim squarely at the Alpine A290 and Peugeot e-208 GTi.