Pure Positive – elegant, timeless and clear. It is one of the most successful compact cars of all time: the Polo. In production for more than 50 years with more than 20 million units built. Now Volkswagen has developed and designed the first all-electric generation: the ID. Polo. Volkswagen Chief Designer Andreas Mindt and his team have created a compact car that embodies the new, crystal-clear Pure Positive design language in every way. It is based on the three defined pillars of Volkswagen design: stability, likeability and secret sauce. It is a language that can be traced back to the DNA of global successes such as the Beetle, Golf or VW Bus, but which has been significantly enhanced by the design team and has now been transferred into the new age of electric mobility with the ID. Polo – a powerful, likeable, unmistakable and honest Volkswagen.
Front end – likeable and confident. The ID. Polo impresses with a new presence, dynamism and quality. Taking the vehicle front end as an example, the ID. Polo shines with a smile here. It smiles because the design forms an automotive face with elements such as the headlight arrangement and shape, the pupil-like LED light units and a glass-covered horizontal bar in between. This likeable appearance is reinforced by a horizontal surface painted in the vehicle colour in the area below as well as the air intake at the end. At the side, vertical airflow openings (air curtains) border the very aerodynamic front end with a Cd value of 0.264; these air curtains look like friendly dimples on a face. In spite of all these likeable features, the design features of stability and “secret sauce” are also visible in the ID. Polo’s front end: thanks to a wide track of 1,526 mm, wheels up to 19 inches in size and correspondingly wide wheels as well as flared wheel arches, the ID. Polo also appears powerful from this perspective – and thus stable. The equipment-dependent illuminated LED strip between the headlights and the VW logo, which is also illuminated in this case, are the surprise element in this class, creating the unmistakable day and night light design of the ID. Polo.
Silhouette – linear and taut. The view of the side section is exciting. Here, too, the new ID. Polo is immediately recognisable as a Volkswagen, although there is of course no VW logo or any other direct marking in this area that would identify the compact car as a Volkswagen model. Once again, it is the DNA features of Pure Positive that speak a clear design language here. This starts with the clearly defined proportions: here it is the linear flank with the lines between the A-pillar and C-pillar that acts as a stabilising element: The window shoulder, the feature line underneath and the side sill create positive tension that extends right into the front end. And this linear design has defined the style of generations of Volkswagen models for decades. For the ID. Polo, the interaction between these lines has been reinterpreted and transferred to the compact model series. Visual stability is also enhanced by a particularly charismatic detail that harks back to the first Golf: the C-pillar design. This element has sharpened the design as a general characteristic of compact Volkswagen models and the next stage in its development is making its debut in the ID. Polo. Another characteristic element of the silhouette is the volume above the wheels. In the case of the ID. Polo, this is kept so low that the Volkswagen – similar to a sports car – creates the visual impression of being particularly stable on the road. This is due to the C-pillars, which literally stand on top of the wheel arches and thus convey maximum stability – referred to as the stance in designer language. The C-pillar design also enlarges the rear door cutout in the centre – making it easier to get into the rear.
Rear end – powerful and charismatic. Andreas Mindt and his team have developed a completely new Volkswagen rear end design for the ID. Polo and the ID. Cross shown in parallel for the first time as a production version. The ID. Polo has a particularly powerful appearance thanks to this new design, whose proportions follow the golden ratio and thus feature a very balanced division of the surface areas. Under the striking roof spoiler, the rear window extends far into the C-pillars, thus emphasising the width of the ID. Polo and at the same time ensuring a good view to the rear from the inside. In the level below it is the glass-covered LED horizontal bar of the tail light clusters which, together with the horizontal area painted in the vehicle colour underneath, creates a superior, sportily crisp and at the same time likeable effect. In the IQ.LIGHT version of the tail light clusters, the two outer, almost rectangular LED elements have a 3D-look. As a result, they appear to float freely in the rear end section. In the IQ.LIGHT version, the transverse strips in the rear light crossbar and the VW logo are also illuminated. (depending on equipment)