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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

Last week Monday VW opened up its pre-orders list for the ID.3 [electrek.co], its first all-electric car built on its MEB platform. A week later, and 37,000 customers have put €1000 in advance already.

There are a couple of reasons for the apparent enthusiasm. First the range, going from an official 330 km (45kWh battery) standard range over 420 km (58kWh) medium to 550 km (77kWh) for the long range battery. Practical range is estimated at 260, 330 and 430 km.

Second the price. The standard version comes in at €21,000 in Germany (€30,000 list price, €9,000 subsidy). Medium range has a list price of €36,000, for the maximum range the price is not yet known, but below €50,000.

The car is rear-wheel driven [autoexpress.co.uk] by an 150kW engine, with top speed limited at 160 km/h. Torque is 310Nm, delivering 0-37mph in 3.7 seconds (1st version; the standard version 9 seconds).

No talk about autonomous driving though: only lane assist and adaptive cruise control are provided.

Delivery of the car starts in September. Volkswagen said it is on track to deliver 70,000 ID.3's by year's end, and an additional 30,000 upcoming ID.4 SUVs along with that. Tesla, in contrast, sold more than 90,000 of its cars last quarter alone.

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