Tesla’s drastic price cut in Australia – announced today – has already sent at least one automotive rival back to the negotiating table with its overseas head office.
The Volkswagen ID4 and ID5 electric SUV twins – one a coupe, the other a wagon – are due to go on sale in July this year, and arrive in local showrooms by the end of this year.
Within hours of Tesla’s latest price cut announced today – which you can read about here – Volkswagen Australia executives had requested a new meeting with Germany on price.
However, the senior executive for Volkswagen Australia cautioned that while the company will endeavour to renegotiate with the factory, it won’t enter a discount battle.
“We’re not going to enter a price war, we never have … we compete on value rather than entering a price war,” Volkswagen Australia general manager of marketing Ralph Beckmann told a media briefing today, to launch the company’s first plug-in hybrid locally, the Touareg R performance SUV.
“When we launch our electric cars later this year we want to launch at a sustainable price point, rather than adjusting the price all the time like some competitors do,” he said.
“We want to protect the future (resale) values of vehicles bought by our customers.”
Meanwhile the Volkswagen ID4 and ID5 are one giant step closer to Australia.
A Volkswagen ID4 electric SUV (pictured above and at the top of this story) touched down in Australia this week – caught on camera by an eagle-eyed EFTM reader after it was air-freighted here to be part of the regulatory pre-approval process.
While it is not unusual for car-makers to air-freight vehicles for evaluation or regulatory purposes, the pictures all but confirm Volkswagen is well progressed with its plans to launch locally by the end of this year.
The VW ID Buzz – an electric version of the modern Kombi – is also due locally by the end of this year.
However, VW the ID3 – an electric hatchback similar in size to the Volkswagen Golf – is due locally in 2025 or beyond, pending further planned updates to the vehicle in Europe.
Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, most of that time with Fairfax (The Sydney Morning Herald), News Corp Australia (Herald Sun and News.com.au), and most recently Drive.com.au (owned by Nine Media). He is also a World Car of the Year judge, has won numerous journalism awards, and test drives up to 200 cars per year.
