THE FIVE DESIGN PILLARS

Volkswagen announced the resumption of production of electric ID.3 after the stop due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The Zwickau plant is working at reduced capacity and with a slower cycle. In the first start-up phase, production is about 50 ID.3s per day, one third of the volume established before the pandemic outbreak. Zwickau was the first Volkswagen plant located in Germany to resume production cautiously, following the shutdown that began in mid-March. Here are the general stylistic principles of ID.3, Klaus Bischoff, head of design for the Volkswagen group, tells us.

The Volkswagen ID.3 represents a clean break with the past. The vehicle design is the result of an entire re-thinking of the stylistic principles that will also inspire the aesthetics of many future Volkswagen models. “With the ID.3, the first Volkswagen constructed on the platform dedicated to electric vehicles for the whole Group (MEB), we are debuting our five new design pillars. The first is pleasantness, thanks to soft and graceful lines; the second is simplicity, expressed in a clean design with curated surfaces”, recounts Klaus Bischoff, head of style for the German brand.

The third pillar is logic, which is essential to researching those solutions and ideas that make the ID.3 more usable in everyday life, followed by innovation: “The pencils of the 430 designers, who come from 30 different countries and who work at Volkswagen, are also guided by this theme. The aim is to create a vehicle that is defined by pleasant, functional lines, but which, at the same time, is an experience for the user”. The fifth and last principle is purity. Away with everything that confuses or is superfluous; only what we really need remains: “This doesn’t mean little care for detail – just the opposite. What isn’t necessary provokes confusion and a lack of grace. Instead, we have designed the ID.3 by researching order”.