VW ID.3 EV got over 10,000 preorders in the first 24 hours

opened up pre-booking for the upcoming

ID.3 electric hatchback

on Wednesday. In the following 24 hours, it received more than 10,000 preorders.

The booking includes a registration for an early production slot for the launch edition ID.3 “1st” model, which has a WLTP range of 420 km, or 260 miles. Only 30,000 launch edition models will be built, and production is scheduled to start in late 2019. The car itself will be fully revealed at the Frankfurt IAA motor show in the fall, and the first customer cars will be delivered a little more than a year from now, in mid-2020.

Volkswagen says some 200 pre-production ID.3 vehicles have been built, and the main facility for

electric car

production will be its plant in Zwickau, Germany, which will make only MEB platform

electric vehicles

. Yearly production capacity is projected to be 330,000 vehicles, from 2020 on.

An interesting footnote in history is that Zwickau used to house the manufacturing plant for the legendary, partially composite

East German Trabant car,

one of the most modest vehicles ever built. At the other end of the scale in the same German state of Sachsen is Dresden’s Gläserne Manufaktur plant, which used to build the luxurious

Phaeton

sedan, and which will also produce MEB platform electric cars in the future. After the Phaeton’s demise, the ostentatious, wood-floored facility was re-tooled to build the

e-Golf

.