2026 Volkswagen ID.4: Tesla Model Y rival to get major makeover

Volkswagen is set to revitalise its ID.4electric SUV with the new design language debuted on the ID. Cross concept electric vehicle (EV) revealed at the 2025 Munich motor show. 

The ID.4 electric SUV was belatedly launched in Australia this year after going in sale in Europe back in 2020, entering the hotly competitive mid-size electric SUV segment led by the Tesla Model Y and BYD Sealion 7.

According to Autocar the ID.4 is set for an overhaul, due in 2026, with the ID. Cross Concept set to be the new design template for the brand’s electric vehicles (EVs).

The ID. Cross Concept is a small SUV similar in size to the latest Volkswagen T-Cross sold in Australia, with the show car debuting what the brand’s chief designer, Andreas Mindt, said will be the brand’s new ‘Design DNA’. 

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It will carry over to the brand’s latest designs, with the ID.4 set for a mid-life update so substantial it’ll reportedly be closer to a new generation in the breadth of its changes.

“We’ll re-do the ID 4 completely inside and out. It will be a completely different car – a huge step up,” Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer told Autocar.

It may therefore feature elements from the ID. Cross Concept like its “flush upright front” styling, more defined wheel arches, cleaner flanks, and “flying roof” treatment capped with a “strong and stable C-pillar”.

The latter is a nod to the Mark IV Golf, sold here between 1998 to 2004, as well as the original T1 Transporter/Kombi and the current ID. Buzz.

Previously, Volkswagen’s head of technical development Kai Grunitz told Autocar the ID.4 would have a “lower and squatter stance” than the current version’s, inspired by the ID.2All concept, as well as more physical buttons inside.

The ID.2All concept was revealed (in camouflage) as the ID. Polo at the Munich show alongside the ID. Cross Concept, as the brand looks to add its iconic nameplates to its electric car lineups.

Mr Mindt told Autocar the ID.4 will be the ID. Cross’s ‘big brother’. The updated mid-size SUV is reportedly being referred to as the ‘electric Tiguan‘ internally, though it’s unclear if the production vehicle will be renamed to ID. Tiguan.

As previously reported, the ID.4’s ‘coupe SUV’ sibling, the ID.5, is expected to be axed in 2027.

The closely related ID.3 hatch, which sits in between the ID. Cross and ID.4/ID.5 duo, is also expected to be given a makeover of its own, though Mr Schäfer has confirmed it won’t be renamed ID. Golf.

Instead, a separate, new small electric hatchback wearing the Golf nameplate is due around 2028, and will be sold alongside a petrol-powered Golf.

The ID.3 may have be given a more dramatic change given the current car’s short bonnet, which Mr Mindt said wouldn’t continue for future designs – but he stopped short of revealing how far the changes for the ID.3 will go.

“With electric cars you don’t have engines so the bonnet can be really short, so companies including us did this,” Mr Mindt told Autocar. 

“But the pedal box stays in the same place, and when that stays it’s wrong, because all you create is a very deep dashboard and long glass window, and that is like an oven, and you don’t have energy to cool it down – so it’s a mistake.”

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