One major issue continues to stand in the way of electric cars: Cost. They tend to be more expensive than comparable gasoline-powered vehicles. Volkswagen plans to make EVs relatively affordable in the not-too-distant future, and it unveiled a small, city-friendly concept called ID.Life at this week’s 2021 Munich auto show to illustrate what it has in store.
Volkswagen is thinking small: The ID.Life measures 161.6 inches from bumper to bumper, 72.6 inches wide, and 63 inches tall. Put another way, it’s a couple of inches longer and narrower than a Hyundai Venue. It’s characterized by a pure, simple exterior design and a silhouette that blurs the line between a hatchback and a crossover. Users can remove the roof panel — the design of which can be personalized — to transform the ID.Life into a quasi-convertible.
Developed for young buyers, the ID.Life offers a versatile, lounge-like interior in spite of its small dimensions; it’s a packaging solution made possible by the electric underpinnings. There’s a 34-inch screen integrated into the dashboard, but it doesn’t display the infotainment system. Instead, it pops up from the area beneath the windshield and it can be used to play video games or watch movies. If you need navigation directions, or if you want to change the music, there’s an app for that. Each user’s smartphone or tablet displays the infotainment system.
X-ray vision reveals a smaller version of the highly modular MEB architecture designed to underpin a long and growing list of EVs. Power comes from a single electric motor that zaps the front wheels into motion, which is a big change because all of the existing MEB-based cars are either rear- or all-wheel-drive. The motor draws electricity from a 62-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack to develop 234 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque, which is a lot for such a small car and enough for a zero-to-60-mph time of 6.9 seconds. Maximum driving range checks in at 249 miles on the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure testing cycle used in Europe, which is more generous than the Environmental Protection Agency’s testing cycle.
Volkswagen stresses the ID.Life is a concept, so you can’t go out and buy one right now, but it also openly admits the car is a preview of a production model scheduled to make its debut in 2025. It’s too early to tell what it will be called; it might receive a number after the ID prefix to fall in line with the rest of the range, like the ID.3 and the ID.4. When it lands, it should carry a base price of about 20,000 euros, which represents around $24,000 at the current conversion rate. For context, Volkswagen’s smallest crossover is the the Taos, which costs $23,000. The Life won’t be sold in America due to its pocket-sized dimensions, but it illustrates how Volkswagen envisions the city car of the future.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.