Update: As of end 2023, Volkswagen has yet to launch the ID.4 in Malaysia.
PETALING JAYA: Early this month, CarSifu announced that the VW ID.4 electric SUV would be previewed in Kuala Lumpur ahead of its launch in Malaysia.
Well, today is the day.
The preview was held at Sentul Depot in conjunction with Volkswagen Fest 2022, which made its comeback after a two-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two right-hand drive units of the ID.4 were showcased at the festival, which ends tomorrow.
Volkswagen in Malaysia isn't telling when the ID.4 would be launched locally but said it would be soon.
The two cars are meanwhile undergoing field trials in the hot and humid weather of the country. It would be interesting to see how the cars cope with the impending monsoons and fording through shallow sections of flooded roads.
The ID.4 on show at the fest are the Pro Performance variant. Each packed a 77 kWh lithium-ion battery that's good for around 520km. A 201hp electric motor drives the rear wheels and the car can sprint from 0-100kph in 8.5s, and onwards to a top speed of 160kph.
The ID.4 supports 11-kW AC charging and up to 125-kW DC fast charging that reportedly allows the car to recover 320km in half an hour.
As to price, we will only know it once VW gets around to launching it in Malaysia. But expect it to be somewhere in the region of RM200,000 to RM300,000, which is where its rivals Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are positioned.
Zooming out, the Volkswagen Group has been pretty successful in its global electric offensive.
The deliveries of all-electric vehicles were up 25 percent in the first nine months year-on-year. Despite ongoing supply constraints, 366,400 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been handed over to customers until the end of September, up from 293,000 in the prior-year period.
China remains the biggest driver with 112,700 BEVs – more than twice as many as at the end of Q3 2021.
The top selling BEV models in the first nine months of 2022 were the ID.4/ID.5, which collectively sold 122,600 units.
