The 7th edition of the e-Salon exhibition of alternative drive cars starts today at the Prague exhibition center in Letňany. Here, Volkswagen is showing two concepts of affordable electric cars as well as the new generation T-Roc model, which is the first from the concern to receive full hybrid technology.
How to choose the right car? The CEO of Porsche Czech Republic, Jan Hurt, has an original view on the matter: According to him, there are two types of cars at this year’s e-Salon – those that do not smell in the interior, and those that do. “Our cars all smell, see for yourself,” he urges the journalists present, who arrived at the traditional press conference of the Volkswagen brand on the eve of the opening of the e-Salon.
This year, the presence of the brand’s chief designer Andreas Mindt, who replaced Jozef Kabaně two years ago, added variety. It is he who is behind the simple design of the future cheapest model of the brand with the characteristic name Every1. “When you look at small cars, they usually have that cute, curled-up mouse look. But ours is different, it looks proud and strong,” says Mindt, noting that there isn’t a single molding or other decoration on the Every1 concept’s body.
Among other things, such a maximally simple concept helps to reduce production costs, so the car can then be offered for a price below 20,000 euros, which is currently roughly 485,000 crowns. Given that sales of the small electric Volkswagen will only start in two years, quite possibly at that time it will be one of the cheapest cars ever.
Another of the cars on display, the ID.Cross concept, is predicted by Mindt to have a great future: “It rides on the same platform as the ID.Polo, it even has the same wheelbase. You might not have guessed that it is only 419 centimeters long,” Mindt points to the taller body structure with a slightly off-road look. “It will be a bit more expensive than the ID. Polo, but it’s a very important model for us,” he says significantly.
id. Cross is closer to the premiere than the smaller Everyone1, it should go on sale in exactly one year. According to Mindt, both concepts exhibited at the e-Salon are 80 percent identical to the future production version.
However, the ID will be the first of the trio of affordable electric Volkswagens to go on sale. Polo. It should come to car showrooms at the beginning of summer at a price of 25,000 euros (about 610,000 crowns).
However, ID.Polo is the only one missing from this year’s e-Salon, probably because its form is already finished and is only waiting for the official premiere. At the recent Munich Motor Show, the production version was briefly shown to the public, but it was wearing a camouflage film.
The most attractive car from this year’s Volkswagen exhibit at the e-Salon is undoubtedly the dark blue ID.3 GTX in the Fire+Ice limited edition, which refers to the legendary two-wheeled Golf from 1990. It was created in collaboration with the Bogner sportswear brand.
Both cars, the then Golf and the current ID.3, are characterized by dark blue paint with a pearl effect or blue painted wheel rims. But while 10,000 Golfs modified in this way were once produced, the special ID.3 version will be produced in just 1,990 copies.
The new generation of the Volkswagen T-Roc urban SUV will also be presented in Letňany, although the model on display at the e-Salon atypically runs on gasoline. But it is here because its full hybrid version will also arrive next year, and it will be the first time ever that the Volkswagen Group will deploy such technology in a production car.
The e-Salon is open to the public from Thursday to Sunday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. The exhibition closes an hour earlier on the last day. Visitors can find here, for example, the Tatra Force e-Drive battery truck or the Škoda Vision O electric station wagon study.
