- Volkswagen is giving the ID.4 a major visual overhaul to make it look more like its combustion cars.
- One report says the revised ID.4 is internally referred to as the ‘electric Tiguan.’
- The heavily updated model will debut sometime next year, and it may ditch the ID.4 name.
Volkswagen’s ID electric vehicles got off to a rocky start, mainly due to software issues and other delays. But once those were fixed, vehicles like the ID.4 gained a lot of appreciation from both media and buyers—even if not many people embraced its ultra-streamlined design.
Now VW is changing that as it prepares a heavily overhauled ID.4 to launch next year, as a new report from the UK’s Autocar substantiates other things we’ve heard about design changes coming to this model.
That report claims the 2026 Volkswagen ID.4 will look nothing like the current model, which aimed for a futuristic vibe but ended up looking kind of weird. Park next to the mechanically similar Skoda Enyaq, and you can see just how left-field VW went with the styling. I got to drive both and preferred the Skoda’s more old-school approach.
Whether its unusual look actually affected sales is hard to determine, and ID.4s and ID.5s are fairly common, especially in Europe. But VW thinks it can do better if it has a more conventional SUV-like exterior, which it’s pairing with an interior makeover to produce a very different-looking and feeling vehicle.
From Autocar’s story:
A major priority for the design overhaul is to ensure the ID 4 is visually related to the upcoming ID 1 city car and ID 2 superminis. “We felt it needed to fit in with the new design language going forward, since it is still our most important electric vehicle in numbers,” said Schäfer.
Autocar understands the new ID 4 is known internally as the ‘electric Tiguan’, hinting at a push to present the two similarly sized SUV models more overtly as siblings.
Even though the hard points of the shell will be untouched, VW will likely make the shape of the roof appear quite different. If you look at an ID.4 from a rear three-quarter perspective, it’s pretty clear that VW wanted to make it look more like a fastback with a floating roof design, which is why it painted part of the C-pillar black, while the roof is body-colored.
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This was done to make it look similar to a coupe-like SUV, even though VW offered the ID.5, which has an actual fastback rear. We don’t think this design element will make it to the revised ID.4, which will make it appear more rugged and upright to go with its more squared-off front.
Inside, VW will bring back some much-needed physical controls. While the exterior style didn’t seem to be a point of contention, the fact that the ID.4 had capacitive controls for basic tasks and other functions solely accessible through the touchscreen was unanimously disliked.
VW previously confirmed that volume, climate and hazard lights would get dedicated physical buttons. This should noticeably improve the experience of driving and being aboard an ID.4, and we also hope it gets dedicated buttons for all four electric windows.
The current version has two buttons and a third to switch whether you want to operate either the front or rear windows.
The VW ID.2all concept, which previews VW’s change of approach and a return to traditional design, has four window switches, as well as a bar of buttons below the central screen. The outer buttons are for the front seat heaters, then come temperature controls for the front two zones, and there’s a central knurled scroll wheel that will likely adjust both media volume and fan speed, as well as potentially other functions too.
Volkswagen ID.1 (2027) Motor1.com render
Photo by: Motor1.com
This layout will likely find its way into VW’s future ID offerings, including next year’s revamped ID.4, which is the manufacturer’s most important electric vehicle, as it is under pressure to get right.
Will this mean an actual name change? That’s still very unclear. But even with a completely new and very different body and interior, the ID.4 won’t have significantly improved specs. The platform is the same 400-volt MEB architecture that underpins all of VW’s electric offerings, which the manufacturer will keep using until 2028, when it’s expected to launch its first EV based on the 800-volt SSP.
We can also draw a parallel between VW and Mercedes-Benz. Both manufacturers went all-out and launched parallel lineups of very different-looking electric models that had their own dedicated EV platform. That didn’t work out as well as they had hoped (arguably more so for Mercedes), and now they are rushing to turn their EVs into lookalikes of their gas models.
It’s not that the approach itself was bad—it’s admirable that they invested so much into having a separate EV range—but it could have been done better. Kia, for instance, with its own roster of boldly styled dedicated pure electric models that bear no resemblance to its gas models, saw great success, as did its partner Hyundai. It will be interesting to see how the strategy change pans out for VW and Mercedes, since it may not have been the approach but the execution that limited their EV success.