Morning coffee, RSS news feed... the screen lights up bright yellow. A video from the VW media centre in Hanover... zoom in... and oh, ugly! This isn't how one expects the day to begin at the headquarters of an automotive giant. Yet here we are, confronted with Volkswagen's latest electric car concept, the ID Every1, in all its ugly duckling glory.
The supposed EV for the masses flashes on-screen, its canary yellow body looking like a patchwork of past VW design cues. If you're already going with bright yellow, you should know that people expect something like the Transformers' Bumblebee! In that brief moment, with a half-sipped espresso, one can't help but feel a twinge of disappointment. This "ID Every1" is meant to signal VW's future, but instead it looks like a relic – a symbol of stagnation in Germany's once trailblazing auto industry.
Too Little, Too Late – A Symbol of Stagnation
Volkswagen's ID Every1 was supposed to be an “affordable EV for everyone”. Instead, it has become a metaphor for “too little, too late”. Announced with great fanfare, the ID Every1 concept will only debut in 2027 as a production model – a date that feels light-years away in the rapidly evolving EV market.
By the time this car hits showrooms, the world will have moved on. Market leaders will have iterated through several generations of EVs, and consumers will have a plethora of long-range, high-tech options. Yet VW's big idea for 2027 is essentially a repackaged 2010s product: the ID Every1 is explicitly described as the electric successor to the VW Up! city car.
Wake up! Market demands have shifted dramatically in the past few years. Consumers have shown they want compelling electric vehicles with greater range, spaciousness, and modern tech – often in crossover or SUV form. In 2023, Tesla's Model Y became
Europe's best-selling car of any kind. That was a wake-up call to legacy automakers that the EV race had accelerated. Yet Volkswagen's response is to develop a pint-sized hatchback that could easily have debuted five years ago.
Beyond timing, the ID Every1 fails to inspire on design and performance – crucial areas where VW once led. Those initial sketches reveal a car that cherry-picks styling from Volkswagen's back catalogue. The C-pillar evokes the 2008 Scirocco revival, the tailgate channels the VW Up!, and the front fascia vaguely echoes a Mk4 Golf.
Instead of forging a bold new identity, the ID Every1 looks nostalgic – as if it were assembled by committee from VW's parts bin. The overall aesthetic isn't offensive, but neither is it exciting – certainly not the kind of design that will turn Tesla or Hyundai owners' heads.
Under the skin, the story is similar. The ID Every1 rides on a diminutive powertrain with a single 70 kW (93 hp) motor, giving it a modest top speed of about 80 mph. The driving range is shockingly low: at best 155 miles (250 km) on a charge under ideal conditions.
In real-world use, especially in cold weather or on motorways, that likely translates to just over 200 km of range – an underwhelming figure by today's standards. For comparison, the last e-Up! – a car the ID Every1 is meant to replace – managed 161 miles on a smaller battery.
So after a decade and billions in R&D, Volkswagen's grand 2027 EV will barely equal (or even slightly undercut) the range of its own discontinued mini-EV. This is stagnation exemplified: new wine in an old bottle, with the flavour gone.
By 2027, rival affordable EVs will likely boast 250–300+ miles of range and far better performance, all while meeting entry-level price points. Even Volkswagen's own ID.2 is targeting 220–280 miles of range with larger battery options.
Cost-cutting has clearly driven the ID Every1's development: using cheaper LFP battery chemistry, limiting motor output, forgoing fancy features – all to hit the magic €20,000 price tag. Affordability is important, but when it comes at the expense of the core value proposition, it ceases to be a smart strategy. Instead, it looks like VW is building an EV simply to say "we have the cheapest EV," rather than to genuinely delight customers.
If the ID Every1 epitomises VW's product stagnation, then Volkswagen's partnership with Rivian is exhibit A of its leadership vacuum in technology. Once upon a time, German automakers prided themselves on in-house engineering excellence. Now, Volkswagen has effectively outsourced a chunk of its EV future to a California startup, paying $5.8 billion for the privilege.
Let's be clear: Volkswagen didn't partner with Rivian out of a position of strength. It did so because it had to. The German giant has been floundering on the software front for years – an issue so severe that it toppled VW's previous CEO. Volkswagen's in-house software unit, Cariad, fell disastrously behind in developing a new unified software platform, causing multi-year delays to key models.
From Rivian's perspective, the deal was a lifeline. The startup was burning cash at a frightening rate, racking up over $1.4 billion in losses in Q1 2024 alone. VW's money couldn't have come at a better time.
The question is: what does this say about Volkswagen's leadership and vision? By "innovating" with a chequebook, Volkswagen signalled that its own capacity to lead the EV software race has fizzled. The companies announced that the first Volkswagen models using Rivian's tech won't arrive until 2027. That's two years after Ford, GM, and numerous Chinese automakers will have their latest EV platforms in full swing.
Volkswagen has essentially told the world it won't have competitive software-defined EVs until the latter half of this decade. That's a startling admission for a company that, not long ago, boasted it would dethrone Tesla as the top EV seller by 2025.
Moreover, there's risk in banking on Rivian's software solution. Rivian has delivered tens of thousands of vehicles; Volkswagen will need to deploy that software architecture in millions of cars across dozens of models and regions. It remains to be seen whether Rivian's platform can scale up and adapt to the complexity of VW's empire.
There was a time when Volkswagen defined innovation and leadership in automotive engineering. This is the company that gave the world the Beetle as a "people's car," that introduced the Golf GTI inventing the hot hatch genre, and that engineered the groundbreaking DSG dual-clutch gearboxes and TDI engines. VW's brands pioneered all-wheel-drive rally cars and dual-clutch race transmissions. The pride of German engineering ran deep in Wolfsburg's culture.
But today's Volkswagen seems to be reacting rather than leading – patching up gaps, following trends set by others, and fumbling to keep up with the pace of change.
The ID Every1 and the Rivian partnership together paint a picture of a company that has lost its confident stride. Need a cheap EV city car? Grab the old Up/Polo recipe, toss in an electric powertrain, and promise it'll be ready in a few years. Need a cutting-edge software platform? Don't develop one in-house (that attempt failed); instead, write a hefty cheque to buy one from a newcomer.
Even Volkswagen's rhetoric reveals a defensive posture. CEO Thomas Schäfer unveiled the ID Every1 to employees calling it “an affordable, high-quality, and profitable electric Volkswagen from Europe for Europe – that's the Champions League of automotive engineering”. The Champions League? Perhaps he intended to inspire, but the reference only highlighted how uncompetitive VW's efforts have been. In the arena of EV technology – today's true championship – Volkswagen is not at the top of the league; it's struggling mid-table, at risk of relegation.
Volkswagen's brand stood for "Das Auto" – the definitive car – implying confidence that its products set benchmarks. Now, that tagline has been retired, and rightly so. There is a creeping sense that VW's management is chasing yesterday's ideas with tomorrow's money. The ID Every1, with its meagre range and retro look, chases the notion that a cheap electric hatchback alone can fill the gap of declining small ICE car sales. The Rivian deal chases the Silicon Valley dream that software will define the car of the future – something VW knew but couldn't execute, so it's buying it in.
The harsh truth is, if Volkswagen thinks this is how to reclaim market leadership, they've already lost the race. In the grand tale of the automotive industry's electric transition, VW's latest moves feel less like a bold new chapter and more like a footnote of caution – a lesson in how even the mighty can stumble when they stop leading and start following.
