► VW gives its EV hatchback another try
► New ID.3 Neo launches with much improved interior
► Revised e-motor and battery options, too
Praise be! Volkswagen has listened to all of our collective grumbling about its cars and is doing something about it. This is the new ID.3 Neo – a heavy upgrade to the car that kicked off VW’s electrification push in 2019. You know – the one that quickly became a significant headache for the brand due to its delayed launch, dodgy interior quality and utterly cack software integration.
The new ID.3 Neo aims to rectify all that and is the first tangible result from the brand’s ‘True Volkswagen’ scheme – a company-wide program designed to course-correct it and get it back to making cars people want to buy again. That project was largely spearheaded by current brand CEO Thomas Schäfer, who says – when he took the job in 2022 – he could ‘immediately see where things were not working.’ Ouch.
The plan, says Schäfer, is designed to slowly nudge VW back to its heartland of making mainstream cars that function properly and build ones that people actually like. ‘It’s been quite a journey,’ he says. ‘Geopolitics, supply chains, competition and so on. But, more importantly, we had to change ourselves and create a new mindset. But a brand doesn’t change overnight – it’s through small decisions and through things we do every day.’
This new ID.3 Neo, then, is the start of something greater.
It doesn’t look much different…
Well… quite. Here we are talking about some grand scheme to fix an entire brand and the first real production car that’s come out of it barely looks like it’s changed on the outside.
There are a few changes, mind, but they are small; a new front end includes a fresh (optionally backlit) panel that stretches the full width of the car, bringing the Neo into line with other recent Volkswagen models. The bumpers have been redesigned front and back, there are new wheel designs and the tailgate is painted to match the body colour – instead of always being painted black as before.
Gone are the ill-advised touch sliders for climate controls, replaced by physical controls in the centre of the dashboard. They have a knurled edge to them and some of them work a like toggles, allowing you to press down or lift some of the switches for temperature control or fan speed. ‘When it’s just a slider, it doesn’t give you any sense of quality,’ says Gorbachev.
There’s also a physical dial for volume control and four individual window switches on the driver’s door for each window – not the horribly fiddly two-switch setup that required pressing another haptic button marked ‘REAR’ as before.
Any non-interior based changes?
There’s been some improvements and revisions to the batteries and e-motors available for the ID.3 with this new Neo version. A new electric motor labelled APP350 (the former was named APP310; the name stands for Axial Parallel Position and the number is the torque figure in newton metres) claims higher efficiency via a 38 per cent reduction in heat losses.
That new e-motor is available in three states of tune: 168bhp (linked to a 50kWh battery), 188bhp (with a 58kWh battery) and 228bhp (which uses a 79kWh battery). VW claims up to 259, 307 or 391 miles respectively from those battery/motor choices. The 50 and 58kWh packs can charge up to 105kW on DC fast chargers, while the larger 78kWh back can take up to 183kW of juice at once.
Three trim levels have been confirmed by the brand: Trend, Life and Style. VW has also confirmed the return of a ‘future sporty flagship’ model in the months to come. But the fact that the GTX tagline hasn’t been mentioned in its press material here is conspicuous by its absence…
When can I buy a new ID. 3 Neo?
VW says the first orders will open in April, with the first deliveries happening around July. We’ll have to hang on for specific UK pricing, as well as any confirmation battery, motor and trim specifications for a little while yet.