Volkswagen’s Delaying Its Electric Sedan In America Because Who Really Wants One?

If you’ll soon be in the market for an electric sedan, your incoming pool of choice may be smaller than expected. The Volkswagen ID.7 sedan has been delayed for North America, with no public timeline on its launch. If this is giving shades of the Arteon launch, you aren’t just imagining things.

Volkswagen initially claimed its Arteon liftback would go on sale in America in 2018, a timeline that was pushed back to 2019 back in autumn 2018. While the Arteon did eventually come to the U.S. market, it wasn’t exactly a sales success, and that vibe is currently clouding the recently announced delay of the ID.7.

With an 82 kWh battery pack and 200 kW DC fast charging, the ID.7 competes directly with the Hyundai Ioniq 6 while offering a larger footprint than a Tesla Model 3 and the added practicality of a hatch-like liftback. However, the USA and Canada will be waiting longer than expected for the ID.7, likely for a variety of reasons. While Volkswagen states it’s because the model’s an unexpected hit in Europe, it’s possible that the story goes deeper than that.

Tariffs on Chinese-built EVs may make it difficult to import ID.7s from China, instead relying on production capacity at VW’s Emden plant in Germany. As Emden is already juggling multiple model lines, and Automotive News Europe reported an EV production cut at the plant last year, there’s a chance the production capacity just doesn’t exist to bring the ID.7 to North America at this time. There’s also the chance that forecast volumes don’t make sense at this time, as Volkswagen has stated in a media advisory that brand growth in America is “driven by its SUV segment.” If sales of traditional passenger cars are stagnant or declining, why introduce another one?

As a product, the Volkswagen ID.7 seems seriously promising, given our experience with a prototype. The adaptive dampers have 15 stages of adjustment, allowing for extra softness or extra stiffness over the preset comfort and sport settings, and the steering setup makes this big sedan surprisingly nimble, as we noted earlier:

The steering here feels quick and responsive, with enough heft in Sport mode to satisfy. I especially like the small turning radius, helpful when I have to park the car in an outdoor courtyard with tables full of media folks chatting away while I perilously execute a sharp u-turn in their midst.

So, when can we expect the Volkswagen ID.7 to finally make it to America? Well, we don’t know. Volkswagen didn’t state a timeline in its media release, but we’ve reached out to the automaker and will report back once we get an update. In the meantime, Volkswagen has noted that the ID.Buzz will go on sale in America in the fourth quarter of this year, so even though it’s been years of waiting on that, the reborn microbus should roll into showrooms relatively soon.

Still, that likely won’t satiate sedan die-hards, long-time Passat owners, or the handful of North Americans who bought Arteons. The smaller frontal area of a sedan compared to a crossover pays dividends in the electric vehicle space. So, how about a Hyundai or a Tesla? The Ioniq 6 and Model 3 aren’t liftbacks, but they’re on sale in America right now, and that’s something we can’t say about the ID.7.

Photo credits: Volkswagen

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