Volkswagen To Unwrap Another I.D. Concept

It will feature two electric motors and all-wheel drive

Volkswagen I.D. is a segment of vehicles which will go on to become the future for the Wolfsburg-based auto giant. The first concept of the I.D. family was showcased at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. Powered by an electric motor, the party piece for the concept was the fully autonomous and its connected driving nature. Volkswagen itself tagged the concept as revolutionary as the Beetle, when it was launched in the late 1930s.

Come January 2017 and Volkswagen will take the wraps off another I.D. concept. The company is calling it a multi-functional vehicle for the new era. It isn’t hard to decode that it will be a multi-purpose vehicle for the future. Just like the I.D. concept that was presented in Paris, this second vehicle is based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit. While the I.D. family of vehicles will be electric, connected and autonomous in nature, Volkswagen says that I.D. also stands for purity in design language, form and character. The second vehicle will feature two electric motors and all-wheel drive.

There are some elegant touches that VW hopes to include in the production ready unit of the I.D. For instance, press lightly on the VW logo and the electronically retractable steering wheel disappears into the dashboard and fully-autonomous driver mode is engaged. While the driver relaxes, laser scanners, ultrasonic and radar sensors and cameras read the traffic movement to keep the passengers safe.

A lot is happening in Germany’s automobile industry to be future-ready. Recently we learnt that BMW is gearing up to unveil the 530e iPerformance sedan, which will feature a hybrid powertrain, at the NAIAS in Detroit. If that’s a bit old school for you, the Munich-based auto giant is also working to set up a new generation of autonomous, connected and all-electric vehicles under its iNEXT project. News is equally promising from Stuttgart, Germany, which serves as the headquarters for Mercedes-Benz. The three-pointed-star plans to showcase their developments in CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric Drive) tech at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).