Volkswagen is launching an onslaught of electric vehicles to the Australian market in the coming years, but one in particular will be going after Australia’s best-selling electric car, the Tesla Model Y.
Volkswagen will launch the electric ID. 4 in Australia in the third quarter of 2024, and says the top-selling Tesla Model Y is directly in its sights.
Speaking to media at the 2023 Munich motor show, product and PR communications manager for Volkswagen Australia, Daniel DeGasperi, said Volkswagen is focusing on volume – and needs to be competitive on price with its electric cars.
“The medium SUV segment is so important to Volkswagen and to our level of competitiveness. We are going directly after the Tesla Model Y. We’re very unequivocal about that. And we think we will have the better engineered, the better driving car and the more fully featured car,” he said.
While Volkswagen will chase the Model Y on volume, it won’t compete on fixed pricing – meaning customers will still be able to haggle with dealers, unlike the fixed price Tesla model.
How does Volkswagen aim to target the Model Y? The ID. 4 will be priced at a similar point to the mid-specification Model Y Long Range ($80,200 before on-roads), with a 210kW and 545Nm rear-wheel drive powertrain.
Volkswagen is confident it will have adequate stock of its electric cars when it comes to launch time.
“We don’t want to launch with limited supply … we are a volume brand. We’re not going to launch the ID. 4 with limited volume,” Mr DeGasperi said.
“So that will go into dealers, our big dealer network around Australia, and that’s one of the benefits we think we will have against that particular competitor I mentioned [Model Y] – that we have a really strong competitor and [VW dealers] will all be ready for day one … in terms of being able to sale sell and service those vehicles,” he said.
The Tesla Model Y was the seventh best selling car in Australia last month, outpacing internal-combustion SUVs from big name car brands.
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