Volkswagen Executive Confirms Electric Sedan Will be Called ID.7 on LinkedIn

Rumor had it that the former would replace the latter, but Brandstätter was assigned a new job: running the group’s operations in China. That did not save Diess, who left VW on August 31, 2022. Brandstätter went to China at the beginning of that month. Summing up his three months there, he confirmed VW’s electric sedan would be called ID.7.

Brandstätter confirmed that on a LinkedIn post in which he also shared interesting perspectives on the Chinese market. According to the Volkswagen executive, the Chinese market “is the most exciting in the world” because of everything that happened there in the last three years. It certainly helps that it is also the largest car market in the world, where almost anything you want to sell will find customers.

Despite that diversity, China is focused on the electric shift for personal mobility. Brandstätter said that every fourth new vehicle delivered this year in the country was a new energy vehicle (NEV, which includes plug-in hybrids, EVs, and FCEVs). In 2023, that is expected to change: every third new car will be a NEV. That was when he said Volkswagen already has a great portfolio in that country and that the ID.7 – previously known as Aero B – will help the company even more. Chinese customers are big fans of sedans.

Brandstätter also said that Intelligent Connected Vehicles are the future there and that 60% of all kilometers driven on Chinese roads by 2040 are expected to be covered by autonomous vehicles. That would justify Volkswagen’s investment in Horizon Robotics. However, what about Argo AI, a company in which the German company also invested and which closed its doors in October? The executive did not mention anything about that.

Finally, Brandstätter said that China impressed him with the development speed that car projects have there. Toyota’s partnership with BYD is mainly attributable to the same awe. The German executive said that Volkswagen might not accelerate developments at the same pace because it takes “the time to develop vehicles at the highest level for our customers to fulfill our promise of quality and reliability.” Anyway, it wants to learn with China how to do that faster. Considering how long the ID.7 is taking to reach production lines, that is certainly not its case.