Volkswagen has announced what it will call its upcoming Golf-size electric vehicle, with the newcomer set be revealed in September 2019.

The Wolfsburg-based firm says the new model set to debut in Frankfurt will wear the "ID3" badge.

So, what’s the thinking behind the name? Well, VW has used the ID prefix (standing for “intelligent design”) on all of its modern electric concepts. And the number three? Well, the firm says the numeral is “significant in two ways”.

Firstly, it indicates that the ID will compete in the compact segment. Secondly, VW says the ID3 “follows the Beetle and the Golf to introduce the third major chapter of strategic importance for the history of the brand”. No pressure, then.

“With the ID3, we are starting from the centre, the Volkswagen brand’s core, in which the majority of the models and sales volume can be found. The number 3 also signals expandability into the segments above and below it. We have a lot in the pipeline,” said Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen brand board member responsible for sales, marketing and after sales.

Interestingly, Volkswagen says it is “willing to become the number one brand globally by 2025, with more than 20 purely electrically driven models and more than a million vehicles sold annually, all of which being both networked and emission-free”.

Every member of this new model family will bear the ID name, which VW says “represents a new, independent series of products in the brand portfolio”. That means the upcoming new EVs, such as those previewed by the ID Crozz, ID Vizzion and ID Roomzz, will also be named with model numbers.

Volkswagen has already opened pre-bookings for the ID3 in Europe. Three battery options will be offered, with claimed ranges between 330 and 550 km. A pre-booking special edition (called the ID3 1ST), meanwhile, will have a claimed range of 420 km.

Original article from Car