Volkswagen’s ICE and electric car designs to converge

The styling of future ICE and electric cars from Volkswagen are set to converge as the brand tries to make its ID range seem less separate.

Volkswagen will also continue to invest in ICE architectures and technology and has put no end date on such investments, according to its new sales and marketing boss, Martin Sander.

Speaking to Autocar at the Paris motor show, Sander said he was still convinced “the future is electric” despite slowing demand for EVs.

He said he believed that Volkswagen had “done our part right, investing many billions in new vehicles, a complete line-up of vehicles on new platforms which we’re offering globally”.

To that end, “I would wish for politicians to recognise that and just clearly commit to the fact that this is going to be the future and take all the doubts away from the consumers” by way of subsidies.

However, Sander added that “the ICE market globally is still that big that we can’t put an end date to ICE development today”.

“Of course, sooner or later, there will be an end date, determined by customer demand,” he continued. “As long as we see customers demanding ICE vehicles, we will have an offer.

“Sooner or later, there will be an end date, but I think it’s too early to say when that is going to be, especially from a global perspective.”

When asked if that would lead to more convergence in the styling of ICE cars and EVs, Sander said: “Yes.”

The first example of this is set to be the production version of the Golf-sized ID2all concept, which has styling that’s more in line with traditional VWs than the firm’s ID EVs.

This raises the potential for two models in VW’s range called Golf: one an ICE car called Golf built on a traditional architecture, the other an EV called ID Golf, styled similarly in a more “likeable” way to now but built on an EV-specific architecture.

“I think it’s really important that we have a clear Volkswagen design language,” said Sander. “Going forward for the next launches, you will see much more clarity in the way Volkswagen vehicles are designed.”

Sander said that were no plans to drop the ID badge completely, even if the designs and names of VW EVs converge on something more traditionally VW.

“We want to build ID as the leading brand for electric vehicles,” he said, adding that ID “is becoming really a strong brand” in its own right.

But at the same time, he said that “Golf is such a strong brand in itself globally, not only in Europe”.

“I think it’s obvious that we have to find a way of reviving Golf or transferring Golf also into the world of electric vehicles,” he said. “This is what we’re going to do – the same for GTI.”

Sander also confirmed that Volkswagen was now investigating extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) hybrid technology after its recent surge in popularity in China.