VW planning ID electric cars with R performance designation, new battery tech

In December, Autocar reported that Volkswagen planned to use the GTX moniker on hot versions of the ID range, the same way GTI indicates spicier takes on the internal combustion range. The report indicated that there could be room above the GTX for even gutsier electric products analogous to R versions of ICE products. It appears that’s on its way to happening. Autocar writes that VW’s working on an electric sports car halo model to lead “a limited range of performance-based ID R road cars.” An internal strategy paper suggested production at VW’s Karmann plant, the car could come in a trim designed to challenge the forthcoming second-gen Telsa Roadster, and design studies have already been built at company headquarters. Volkswagen would turn the battery cell technology it created for the record-breaking ID.R race car to use in the halo sports car. 

The ID.R race car uses a 45-kWh lithium-ion unit placed in two sections of the car. Sven Smeets, the brand’s head of motorsport, called the power source “new performance-based battery” specifically created for ID R road cars, ID.R race car engineers currently in the process of “finalizing the performance parameters.” The company’s R division head, Jost Capito, said there are “different cells and ways of building” the battery, which also employs a different chemical process and architecture to the battery in the ID.3, engineers now experimenting with the various techniques in order “to see how it looks in a road car.” 

The halo sports car isn’t predicted to show until the middle of the decade, so specifics are a few years off. We’ll likely see some melding of the new technology with the battery-electric MEB platform and the e-Performance Golf R concept VW showed last month, which the brand called “a view of the future.” Autocar believes VW could also put its a twin-motor showcase on the coming EV-specific PPE platform intended for Porsche and Audi. If that happens, we could be talking about the rumored all-electric successor to the Audi TT, or the rumored electric Porsche 718 twins. Going the other way, Autocar suspects Porsche could put the electric 718 Boxster on Volkswagen’s MEB platform. We’ll get our first look at VW’s electric performance aspirations with the ID 4 GTX comes our way in a couple of years.