GM Authority has caught General Motors engineers putting the Volkswagen ID.4 through its paces at the GM Milford Proving Ground. Specifically, we caught the electric Volkswagen on the North-South straight of the facility.
VW debuted the all-new ID.4 all-electric crossover last September. The new electric crossover is a rival to the 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV even though it is slightly bigger than the Chevy offering in nearly every dimension.
Volkswagen Group of America CEO Scott Keogh said the ID.4 “drives like a GTI, has the packaging of a Tiguan and the purpose of the Beetle. All the best things about VW in one package.”
The new VW ID.4 is based on the German automaker’s latest modular electric drive architecture, or MEB, placing the electric drive motor in the rear of the vehicle. At launch, the ID.4 was offered with an 82-kWh battery pack and RWD, producing 201 horsepower and 228 pound-feet of torque with an estimated 260 miles of range. Next month, a dual-motor AWD model will be offered with 295 horsepower and 249 miles of range.
Pricing starts at $39,995 for the base model ID.4 Pro model, which does not include the potential $7,500 EV federal tax credit. Earlier this year, the ID.4 was named World Car of the Year 2021 – the fifth such award for Volkswagen.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV and slightly smaller 2022 Chevy Bolt EV were launched this past February. The Bolt EUV was named the Autotrader 10 Best Electric Car For 2021.
The Bolt EUV features a single-motor drive unit rated at 200 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque with a 247-mile range. It starts at $33,000 and offers Super Cruise. The Bolt EV is also rated at the same 200 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque with a 259-mile range and starts at $31,000. Incidentally, the Bolt EUV is slightly slower and offers slightly less range than the Bolt EV because it is bigger while using the same drivetrain.
As an aside, neither Bolt model qualifies for the federal tax credit like the ID.4 does because GM has already sold over 200,000 electric cars, the maximum assigned to each automaker.
Both the Bolt EUV and Bolt EV are the first of many electric vehicles to be launched by GM as it announced plans last year to eliminate tailpipe emissions from its new light-duty vehicles by 2035 and become fully carbon neutral by 2040. In fact, the Detroit-based automaker will increase its financial commitment to EVs and AVs by $7 billion and launch a total of 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025, according to GM CEO Mary Barra.
GM had previously set aside $20 billion for EV and AV investment and said it would launch 20 new EVs globally by 2023. This was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which drove GM to further increase its commitment to battery electric and self-driving vehicles. Barra said the company now plans to invest a total of $27 billion in EV and AVs through to 2025, helping it launch 30 EVs worldwide within the same timeframe – more than two-thirds of which will be available in North America.
The automaker says that with this move, more than half of its capital spending and product development team will be devoted to electric and electric-autonomous vehicle programs.
These 30 new EVs will include Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac products. GM said those models will also encompass EVs “at all price points,” and for various lifestyles and uses including work, adventure, performance, and family. More than 40 percent of GM’s U.S. portfolio will be battery-powered by the end of 2025.
In fact, Barra is so committed to GM’s electric vehicle transition that the highly-paid CEO revealed last week that the Bolt EUV is currently her daily driver.
As for the VW ID.4, we posit that GM is benchmarking it to see how it stacks up against an upcoming future Chevrolet, GMC or Buick crossover, rather than the Bolt EUV. Despite being all-new for the 2022 model year, the Bolt EUV utilizes the last-generation of GM’s battery electric platform and technologies called BEV2. Meanwhile, all next-gen GM electric vehicles will ride on the next-gen BEV3 platform and use more advanced Ultium batteries.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevy Bolt EUV news, Chevy Bolt EV news, Chevy news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
it’s larger than the current EUV. I think they are Benchmarking it against the future version of the Ultium EUV or Equinox EV.
That would be great if true, but my only concern is an Equinox EV would be >$10,000 the gas variant. If they can shrink that price down to ~$5,000, then it will be competitive.
The Lyriq is roughly $10,000 more expensive than the XT5, but it’s a bit larger, significantly more upscale, and comes with a number of standard features that the latter never had including Supercruise, a full-length glass roof, just to name a few features.
I have a feeling that an electric Equinox would try to stay as close as possible in price to the current ICE model as to night scare away existing customers.
@Andy
I agree, the Lyriq exterior and interior are most likely the best GM has done in my lifetime. They nailed that vehicle. I think it is about 5K overpriced but I get it. Too bad GM is most likely utilizing too many ICE Components as Sandy Munro thinks and won’t be offer a Frunk. That is a complete joke for a vehicle the size of the Lyriq. I mean that from Hood is pretty long so it is a pretty inexcusable decision by GM. But besides the lack of a Frunk I still think the Lyriq is head and shoulders the best Cadillac in the last 40 years.
I hope so and announce it soon….im tiring of waiting to see the product line set for out thru 2025 as the volt is getting old.
Not a Bolt rival, ID.4, is RWD (or AWD), and actually kind of fun/sporty to drive, and much larger than Bolt. GM is also benchmarking a Tesla Model Y at Milford which is really the only one they need to worry about, until Ioniq 5 is available. ID.4 is nothing special, great entry crossover EV, but nothing more. Bolt is an Economy EV nothing more. Tesla and Hyundai are the ones to be benchmarking.
I think both versions of the Bolt are good looking cars I wouldn’t mind using for around town errands.
Actually I saw an EUV at the park the other day, and they look way better in person than they do in pictures. It caught my eye, and took me a second to realize what it was.
Was it an LT or Premier? You can tell the different on the color of the faux grill.
Yes I say the same thing. Cars often look better in person. I saw the bolt EUV and frankl if it had higher specs for what I want to buy I would have…i.e. 300 range at least and higher DC charging of at least 100kwh….up to 150 better. Don’t need above 150 if they can keep the high charge going to get the 80% refill down to say a 20 minute window.
VW ID.4 is pretty nice. My coworker ordered one. But I hope GM is smarter and offers a Frunk on an upcoming Chevy CUV and Disc Brakes not the Drums in the rear that VW chose to do.
VW ID looks like a bloated whale, is one of the worst looking cars i’ve seen. It has no style and is boring. VW is the worst car for anything electrical. These things will be a electrical mess in a few years.