The VW ID Polo Is On The Way, And There’s A GTI Coming

This is the (still disguised) production version of the car revealed a couple of years ago in concept form as the VW ID2All. As the smallest member of VW’s ID electric car range, we were fully expecting to carry the ID2 name into production, but no – it will in fact be called the VW ID Polo.

That’s part of the company’s plans to badge its future EVs with more familiar, emotionally resonant names, while combustion and hybrid-powered cars will keep their existing badges too. That means that while the ID Polo will carry that 50-year-old name into the EV age, if another petrol-powered Polo does come around, it’ll keep the badge too, minus the ID.

So, what else is there to know about the ID Polo? So far, not a lot. Beneath that jazzy camouflage that we’re nicknaming ‘deconstructed Harlequin’, we can see that the looks won’t differ wildly from the concept.

It’s based on an updated, downscaled version of VW’s existing MEB EV platform, with the key difference that it’ll be front-wheel drive rather than the RWD setup found in cars like the ID3. That same platform will also find its way under other small VW Group EVs, including the Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq.

Oh, yeah, and as the excellent-looking ID GTI concept promised, there’s a hot one coming too. That, too, will retain the familiar GTI name rather than adopting the GTX badge VW’s used for some of its other sporty EVs. Rumour has it that it could get a Clubsport version with upwards of 280bhp and a limited-slip diff, which should see it nicely poised to take on that other upcoming electric GTi, the Peugeot e-208.

The ID Polo should be a hugely important car for VW, offering a new lower entry point to its EVs (although one that’ll soon be undercut itself by the ID1. Perhaps that’ll resurrect the Lupo name for production?). The regular car and the GTI will be on display in disguised form at the Munich Motor Show next week, before being properly launched next year.