We got it wrong: VW ID.3 and ID.4 will be replaced by “true Volkswagens”

Volkswagen is kicking off its momentous new EV rush with an extraordinary confession: we got it wrong with the original ID.3 hatch and ID.4 SUV.

The revamped ID.3 ‘Neo’ – set to be unveiled next week – fires the starting gun on an intense launch period, with the ID.Polo small hatch, ID.Cross SUV, ID.Polo GTI and refreshed ID.4 all following in quick succession. 

Speaking at a preview of the new cars in Hamburg, Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer painted a picture of how the company – and its upcoming cars – had changed. He became boss in 2022 – ”1,360 days ago!” – and recalled that, back then, the company was looking to him for its new direction.

“You immediately see where things are not working,” he admitted. “It was clear to me that we were actually losing our core: what Volkswagen really stands for, the special Volkswagen feeling, for customers, for fans and for our teams.” 

VW’s big errors majored on design and usability

Schäfer spelled out a long list of things VW got wrong with the original ID.3 and ID.4: exterior designs that were not “true Volkswagens”, unintuitive controls including climate control slider bars and the branding strategy, forsaking the names – and looks – of established models such as the Golf, Polo and Tiguan. He’s promising to right all these wrongs with the new-generation EVs.  

“We had to change ourselves, we had to create a new mindset,” said the boss, speaking to Auto Express and other media. “We brought our management team together, all 600 of them, and I said: ‘Put all the numbers on the table, all the problems, no filters’ and we talked about where we wanted to go. I expected people to hold back, but people got up and applauded and said ‘we’re finally looking in the right corners’.”

“I’m very happy to stand in front of you today after 1,360 days with a strong team and one clear goal: to build real Volkswagen models again, cars that carry the spirit of the brand.”

Shaping cars with customer feedback, not intuition

Schäfer – and Kai Grünitz, the engineering boss who worked alongside him to reinvent the people’s car maker – have demolished VW’s macho culture, epitomised by egotistical leaders of the past such as Ferdinand Piech and Martin Winterkorn. 

The diesel emissions scandal happened on their watch, with engineers told to meet incredible stretch targets or face the consequences. It led to a terrible corporate culture, which blatantly ignored the human health risks of flouting emissions regulations, but single-mindedly produced some very fine cars. 

“Piech and Winterkorn had a feeling what the customer wanted,” said Grünitz, who has been at the company 30 years and worked under both. But the current engineering boss forsakes intuition, instead putting real customers at the heart of product planning and development. “We are doing customer clinics a lot,” he admitted. 

The engineers now develop cars for strict customer profiles, as well as writing lists of prospective car features that are put to punters for feedback. “[We ask] do we really need buttons for climate control and temperature? That’s a fundamental change.”

Grünitz blamed Herbert Diess, the ex-BMW manager and Tesla fan who succeeded Winterkorn as VW brand boss, for the ID.3’s much-derided, smartphone-inspired slider controls. “Changing the CEO means everyone follows the new one, and if he says, ‘hey, we need a slider’, [the engineers might] argue a little bit, but they do the slider. That’s something we both changed dramatically,” said the engineering chief.

New Volkswagens: shaped by a new design ethos

The new Volkswagens also needed radically different interior and exterior designs. Schäfer inherited Klaus Bischoff, the architect of the original ID range, as his head of design – but the two didn’t gel. “I remember my first design meetings [and they] were, let me say, not so easy and rather frustrating. I kept thinking: this is not Volkswagen.”

So at the end of his first year in charge, Schäfer recruited Andy Mindt from Bentley, which helped supercharge the brand’s renewal. Despite having to move house over Christmas and expecting a child, Mindt set to work, designing the car revealed as the ID.2all show car just three months later.

“Andy sketched the way he saw Volkswagen and [said] the design should be clear, timeless, confident, and still looking good after 10 years in service,” revealed the CEO. 

The ID. 2all – which first previewed this year’s ID.Polo – showcases the new design philosophy with its front light bar graphic creating an approachable face, chunky stance and crisply pressed surfaces. Everything is shaped by the logic of usability, not just appearance. 

So the ID. 2all reinstated exterior door handles which, Schäfer said, customers can easily grab with hands full of shopping bags. “[Seems like] a small decision but at Volkswagen, it must be intuitive, it must be likeable. And that’s why we bring back real buttons, usability, and also real car names you can understand immediately.”

Will the new cars make Volkswagen great again?

Transforming the culture in a sprawling organisation like Volkswagen is an enormous challenge. But it’s one the executive team has embraced: Kai Grünitz said he was given two days to think about taking his post with a directive to change the company, and its cars. A proud mission for a man whose father had worked for Volkswagen, running generation after generation of Golf.

“Volkswagen is not just selling cars, we are not selling engines with a little bit of sheet metal around it,” Grunitz vowed. “We sell emotions. We sell memories. And as head of development, that’s exactly what I wanted to bring back.

“I gave my team a very simple goal: when we present our new vehicles in 2026, we want to be proud again, proud of the positive feedback of families and friends, colleagues and customers.”

Sales figures will be the ultimate judge. But the management team has given their all to make Volkswagen great again. 

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