New design for a new era. The revolutionary character of the ID.3 is already clear at first glance. The exterior design of the car is both soft and flowing as well as firm and concentrated, it trusts in strong proportions and does without any superfluous trim elements. The ID.3 is a car for sustainable mobility and is a true Volkswagen at the same time.
Built around the passengers. The one-box design is a clear indication of how the ID.3 is built around its passengers. Its overhangs are unusually short, but the interior is very long because the axles have been moved well apart. The compact electric model has a wheelbase of 2,765 millimetres, which almost matches that of the Passat. The high-voltage battery is located as a flat block under the passenger cell. All the other technical components take up only little space: the drive unit is accommodated on the rear axle, while components such as the radiator and air conditioning system are located in the short front end.
Front end without radiator grille. The front end already shows the character and technical concept of the vehicle: here, the Volkswagen logo is positioned centrally without a radiator grille. This design takes Volkswagen back to its roots – “We are a brand that was born without a grille,” says Klaus Zyciora, Head of Design for the Volkswagen Group and Chief Designer for the Volkswagen brand. The cooling air for the drive units flows in through an intake in the bumper, which features a pattern of honeycombs that are designed based on nature.
Like human eyes. The large headlights are the most striking feature on the front end – these have a friendly expression like human eyes. The LED technology is standard, and IQ. Light with LED matrix headlights is available in the Design package to provide an intelligently controlled main beam. Their electrically swivelling light modules look like pupils, while honeycomb-type openings in the housings and surrounding fibre optic cables radiate the daytime running light. When the intelligently controlled main beam is activated, the light strip at the front is also illuminated. The light modules already perform communication functions before the vehicle is started: they swivel and therefore welcome the driver by looking up.
Large wheels and flat glasshouse. The side view of the ID.3 has a sporty and powerful appearance. The wheels are large and there is a strong C-pillar – a classic Volkswagen design feature. A softly modelled side section curves under the rising shoulder line. The low glasshouse runs out into a long spoiler. The black roof design, which is continued in a trim panel on the bonnet, and the dark inlays on the side members make the silhouette appear lower.
Turn signals in two variants. The rear lid is also black, and its low window emphasises the width of the ID.3. The entire rear end features pronounced plastically shaped contours and a diffuser rounds off the unit towards the bottom. The tail light clusters are also equipped with LEDs. If desired, the customer can switch the turn signals to a second function where the light runs from inside to outside. The brake light always lights up in the conspicuous form of an “X”. Dynamic light animations run in the tail light clusters when the car is unlocked and locked.
Choice of six exterior colours. The ID.3 will be launched on European markets with six exterior colours. These are called Glacier White Metallic, Makena Turquoise Metallic, Manganese Grey Metallic, Moonstone Grey, Scale Silver Metallic and Stonewashed Blue Metallic. On the base model, the roof arch, side member inlays and bumper elements are in black as a contrasting colour. Alternatively, Volkswagen offers two Exterior Style packages, where the roof line shines either in silver or in an attractive copper tone. The Style package also includes side member inlays and bumper elements in Grey Tech Metallic, and the C-pillars are finished with a diamond-pattern film in “honeycomb” look.
Drag coefficient of 0.27. The aerodynamics play an important part for the range of an electric car – the ID.3 achieves an excellent drag coefficient of 0.27. The most important factor for this is the body with the steeply sloping A-pillars, flowing roof line and the drawn-in C-pillars. Clever solutions for individual details also provide aerodynamic benefits. These include the electrically actuated radiator blind in the vehicle front end. This is opened only when the power units require cooling air, otherwise it remains closed so that the wind can flow as easily as possible over the bonnet. The rims with their flat designs are also optimised for air flow with minimum drag losses.
The water deflector strips on the A-pillars and the exterior mirrors positioned on the door shoulders also provide aerodynamic benefits. They also reduce the noise level in the passenger compartment, as does the standard windscreen made of acoustic glass. Several components in combination also contribute to flow separation at the rear – the large roof spoiler, its shoulders, the plastically shaped tail light clusters and the diffuser. This finishes the ID.3’s almost completely flat underbody with large-area panelling at the rear.