- The Volkswagen ID.4 will get an updated front-end design by the end of next year.
- Its design will evolve to bring it closer to other Volkswagen models such as the upcoming ID.2 hatchback.
- It’s also getting an updated dashboard and user interface.
Volkswagen’s electric vehicles are about to look very different. And it’s good news for fans of buttons.
Once defined by their ultra-smooth features, the ID family of EVs is set to adopt a more unified design language and return to physical buttons for their interiors, according to an Autocar report citing Kai Grünitz, Volkswagen’s head of technical development.
The ID.3 and ID.4 are both getting significant front-end redesigns to align with the styling of the upcoming ID.2 hatchback.
The production version of the super-compact ID.2all concept remains unconfirmed for the U.S. market and the ID.3 is not sold stateside either. But both the ID.3 and ID.4 will now resemble their family members more closely on the design front, Grünitz indicated. The refresh is expected to be out by the end of 2026.
Grünitz also added that the ID.4 will get a round volume knob on the next update, admitting that if something’s not broken, there’s no reason to fix it. “If you develop something that works, and it has worked for years, there’s no reason to replace it,” he told the outlet.
Current Volkswagen EVs use a capacitive slider for volume control, which critics have said often feels unnatural and inconvenient to use. Thankfully, that’s now changing. Other Volkswagen executives have also acknowledged that buyers are growing weary of the broader trend of integrating all in-car controls onto a screen.
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“From the ID.2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions—the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans, and the hazard light—below the screen,” Volkswagen’s head of design Andreas Mint said in a previous report.
“They will be in every car that we make from now on. We will never, ever make this mistake again. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone,” he added.
Volkswagen ID.2all Concept interior with physical buttons.
Tesla kickstarted the trend of minimalist interiors, eliminating physical buttons in favor of screen-based controls. This was often billed as a way of delivering a high-tech future for cars, but in reality, it was typically a cost-cutting exercise; EVs, and particularly their batteries, remain more expensive than gas-powered cars and engines, and any cents saved on buttons help bring costs down.
Several automakers followed Tesla’s lead and in some cases, may have taken the screen-first mantra a bit too far. More than just the inconvenience of finding simple functions buried in the menus, safety regulators warned that large screens were leading to distracted driving, increasing the risk of accidents. In fact, the European Union has essentially mandated the return of buttons over time.
The ID.4 has been successful for the Volkswagen brand in the U.S., at one point, it accounted for 12% of its American sales. They dealt with a significant dip in 2024 amid a recall and production halt due to faulty electronic door handles. However, with pent-up demand and backlog orders, ID.4 sales rebounded strongly in the first quarter of this year, with 7,663 units sold—a 26% year-over-year increase.
In Europe, it’s among the best-selling EVs, even helping Volkswagen dethrone Tesla as the continent’s top EV seller in the first quarter of this year, according to JATO Dynamics.
Volkswagen is planning to move to its next-generation Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) by the end of the decade, which will be its new truly software-defined vehicle architecture. Before that hits the market, it needs to keep its current line-up fresh. And that’s exactly what the automaker seems to be doing, with nose jobs and revamped cabins with physical buttons.
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