VW adds traction in budding EV market with AWD for ID.4

Volkswagen is adding all-wheel-drive (AWD) to its all-electric C-class SUV, the ID.4. This should make VW's swift-selling submission in the world's most popular vehicle segment even more compelling, particularly when combined with free charging promotions and applicable state and federal tax credits no longer available to other EV makers. These factors place VW's projected ownership costs below gasoline-powered competitors such as Toyota's RAV4 and Honda's CR-V - with the ID.4 feeling a size-larger from an interior-space viewpoint. It also trumps the ownership-cost structures of the ID.4's nearest competitors, the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model Y.

VW showed off the new AWD ID.4 on the snaking roads surrounding Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the ID.4 will begin localized production in 2022 at the German automaker's sprawling and expanding production facility. The ID.4 is presently manufactured in China and Germany (the current source of U.S-bound vehicles), where production first began at VW's Zwickau facility in August 2020. The ID.4 is Volkswagen's first all-electric SUV, the brand's first global EV, and is built on VW's MEB (modular electric drive matrix) EV architecture.