This is our best look yet at VW’s new electric crossover, the ID.4

Minus the camouflage body panels, this is what Volkswagen's ID.4 electric crossover will look like. [credit: Volkswagen ]

Since the coronavirus outbreak curtailed this year's Geneva auto show, we're going to have to wait a while longer to take an up-close-and-personal look at Volkswagen's new electric crossover. The novel infectious pathogen might be racking up a bodycount of trade shows around the world, but it can't stop all the fun, and so VW took to a webcast in the early hours of Tuesday morning to show off its new wares online. The main reveal planned for the show was the new mk.8 Golf GTI, but we showed you that yesterday. Of even more interest to us here at Ars Technica is our best look yet at the ID.4, an electric crossover that will be the brand's first long-range battery EV for sale in the US.

In fact, this is the first official confirmation that the compact electric crossover will be called the ID.4—until now VW has just referred to it as the production version of the ID. Crozz concept car. But when the first ID—a Europe-only hatchback that we wish would come over here too—was launched with the name ID.3, it wasn't rocket science to extrapolate out across the future range. (At last year's Los Angeles Auto Show we started to exasperate VW's executives by continually referring to the ID. Space Vizzion electric wagon as the ID.5 wagon, although that may only prove that no one likes a wise guy.)

I've included some images of the ID. Crozz concept in the gallery to compare with the images VW has shared of the ID.4 prototype, which illustrate the crossover's path to production. The headlights and taillights have had to change, for the ID.4 will be sold in Europe, the US, and China, and therefore must meet the various road legality regulations. There are slightly larger cooling grilles at the front, and I'd bet that the vertical vents below the headlights have a greater role to play in channeling air at speed along the side of the car to reduce drag and increase range efficiency.

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