Volkswagen Reveals ID Every 1 Concept, a Super Cheap and Small EV With New Look
Not a fan of the ID family design language? Looks like VW’s headed in another direction with this little car’s squared-off light treatment.
Update March 5, 2025: Today Volkswagen revealed the ID Every 1 concept car in full, showing off renders and concept art of the vehicle that will almost certainly become the “sub-€20,000” EV to be sold (probably) as an ID1. We have some specs, too, so although the ID Every 1 isn’t completely representative of the eventual production model—the interior, in particular, it too concept-y—we have a sense of what to expect.
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Let’s start with size. The ID Every 1 is a li’l guy, as expected; its overall length is 152.8 inches, about the size of a 2025 Mini Cooper Hardtop. As VW points out, that makes it a little larger than the old “up!” micro-runabout and a little smaller than the subcompact Polo on sale today in some markets. It’s also a few inches shorter than the ID2all, the slightly more expensive EV (at roughly €25,000) that VW will sell alongside it. Inside, it’ll apparently have room for “four people”—of what size, it’s unclear; children?—and 10.8 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats.
More importantly, we know that the front-drive, MEB-based vehicle can do roughly 155 miles max at up to 81 mph using its 94-horsepower e-motor. That’s … well, basic indeed. And the range figure is a European number, so if we were to translate that into flag-waving, screaming-bald-eagle figures, it’d be less. That said, this is almost certainly not going to come stateside. Instead, as we mentioned earlier when the concept sketches were released, consider this a preview of a revised ID design language. We dig it, and presumably face-lifted and future ID models for America will take some of this stylistic DNA.
Update February 13, 2025: Volkswagen released an additional two concept sketches of the IDOne, which you can see above and below. The original article from February 16, 2025, continues below.
Volkswagen just teased its upcoming entry-level EV, which has been expected to be called the ID1 but whose license plate, when lightened slightly with photo editing software, appears to be styled “IDONE.” Volkswagen says it previews the styling of the future production car, which the company expects to ring in at just under $21,000 in Europe.
And while it’s unlikely to come to the U.S., as we haven’t gotten any of VW’s smallest cars and hatchbacks like the Up! or Polo, it does seem to be a stark departure from the current VW ID-series styling language. That could mean that the company will shake it up for future American-market products.
And the teaser is somewhat revealing, too. For one, we see those expressive headlamps, which are a big departure from the older ID language and are a bit aggressive, with a “narrowed eyes, furrowed brows” sort of look. Compare this to the blobular, generic look to the ID4’s front fascia, which (without the VW badge) wouldn’t convey much Volkswagen-ness to an onlooker. The squared-off lens covers, which intersect with the round internal elements, recall (in an abstract way) the sealed-beam U.S.-market headlights of the Mk. I Rabbit/Golf and more generally the angular Giugiaro lines of the earliest of that line. (Especially the European versions with the tiny bumpers.)
Despite the scowling eyes, the lower fascia seems fairly friendly, with a little upturned smile at the lower intake, vertical lighting element “dimples,” and a lot of tumblehome from the tall, narrow hood to the accentuated fenders. There’s a slight resemblance, head-on, to the basic proportions of the new Renault 5 E-Tech, which is handsome (and arguably much more distinctive, and very French). But the IDOne is handsome, and nicely proportioned.
We won’t have to wait long to get more details on the vehicle itself, besides its partially shadowed front. VW will show off the “concept” version of this vehicle—almost certainly a near-production thing with a few fantasy nods, like unrealistically large wheels or tiny bladelike side mirrors—in March. And a production version will follow in 2027, on the heels of a production version of the ID2all concept. That car, revealed in concept art form in 2023, looks very much like a scaled-down Mk.VIII Golf with quasi-ID styling, but a similar lower fascia treatment to the IDOne. The ID2all is a Polo-sized vehicle, so smaller than a Golf, but due to packaging is claimed to offer more room inside than a Mk.VIII. VW says that the ID.2all will go into production in 2026.
Like a lot of the other staffers here, Alex Kierstein took the hard way to get to car writing. Although he always loved cars, he wasn’t sure a career in automotive media could possibly pan out. So, after an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Washington, he headed to law school. To be clear, it sucked. After a lot of false starts, and with little else to lose, he got a job at Turn 10 Studios supporting the Forza 4 and Forza Horizon 1 launches. The friendships made there led to a job at a major automotive publication in Michigan, and after a few years to MotorTrend. He lives in the Seattle area with a small but scruffy fleet of great vehicles, including a V-8 4Runner and a C5 Corvette, and he also dabbles in scruffy vintage watches and film cameras.
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