What's the news?
Volkswagen, like its stablemate Skoda, is going to unleash a phalanx of fully electric vehicles (EVs) on us between 2020 and 2025, with the explicit aim of selling one million pure EVs per annum in eight years' time. Unlike Skoda, though, Volkswagen has its own EV sub-brand in mind, which will be called ID. And this is one of the pioneering models of this futuristic family - the ID Crozz II, a refinement of the ID Crozz concept we saw at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year. It has been unveiled on the eve of the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Exterior
If you've looked carefully at the Skoda Vision E, you're going to see huge similarities in terms of the ID Crozz II's external shape, its internal digitisation and its drivetrain layout; mainly because they're pretty much the same machines underneath, utilising the Volkswagen Group's MEB chassis optimised for electrification.
We're not going to outline the full gamut of what the ID Crozz II has, as instead we'll just tell you what's changed from Shanghai to Frankfurt. In the main, the big changes are the front and rear ends of the ID Crozz II, which are now much more like what we'll see from the production vehicle. It's also gone from being silver to Hibiscus Red metallic. Sitting on 21-inch wheels, the ID Crozz II is 4,625mm long, 1,891mm wide and 1,609mm tall, with a 2,773mm wheelbase.
So, that front end. It wears semi-circular LED headlights with narrow, individual light facets, said to look more like the pupils of a living organism's eyes than ever before. There's an LED strip spanning the front end (this is like the Vision E) and an illuminated 'VW' nose badge, beneath which is a large V-shaped structure and a cross-fin in body colour running through the black 'air intake' screen. At the back, that cross-fin detail is repeated and round the side, black sills stand out prominently from the luscious red paint.
Interior
There's been a subtle redesigning of the interior, although there's nothing subtle about the fancy voice control. You can do all manner of things just by chatting to the ID Crozz II, such as telling it to open the doors, turn on the automatic 'ID Pilot' or pop the boot lid. Talking of which, there's 515 litres of storage space at the back of the Volkswagen.
Five 'Smart Lights' are also new, which are four intelligent light strips on the door cards and then another in front of the driver. These respond to that voice control function, so if an occupant chooses to open their door by speaking out loud, the light in question illuminates to clearly show what's going on. The one in front of the driver lights up according to navigation requirements and whether the car is even on, for instance. And two-colour ambient cabin lighting is easy to understand, as it's blue if the human is in control of the Volkswagen and red if the autopilot is doing a shift.
Mechanicals
The same pair of electric motors, one on the front axle and one on the back, are fitted to the ID Crozz II and they still churn out a total 225kW (306hp), provide four-wheel drive via an 'electronic propshaft' (i.e., there's no physical link between the axles) and they can apparently take the Volkswagen electric SUV-coupe up to 500km on a single charge of its batteries. The top speed remains 180km/h and yes, if you're reading this and thinking it all sounds familiar, these are all the same stats as the Skoda Vision E. Volkswagen does at least confirm the battery energy capacity is 83kWh and that the pack can be charged to 80 per cent of its power within around 30 minutes.
Anything else?
Slightly more 'in the now' for Volkswagen at the Frankfurt show, the company is also displaying a sportier R-Line version of the recently announced T-Roc crossover. So that's nice.