Well-balanced & sporty at the same time – the new Volkswagen ID.4 EV chassis

Wolfsburg — Nimble in the city, agile on country roads, and relaxed on the highway: Volkswagen’s new ID.4 SUV is effortless and fun to drive. Volkswagen has invested a great deal of know-how in the chassis of the ID.4—in both the mechanical components and the electronic control system.

Sporty handling due to low center of gravity. The VW ID.4 SUV is designed to be fun to drive: the rear-wheel-drive layout ensures strong traction, and with the large high-voltage battery located between the axles, lowering the center of gravity, the weight distribution is very close to 50:50. With 3.5 turns lock-to-lock and a stellar curb-to-curb turning radius of 33.5 feet, the ID.4 feels nimble, especially compared with other compact SUVs.

The ID.4 has a strut-type front suspension, with lower control arms, coil springs, telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar. For the first time at Volkswagen, the steering rack is located in front of the centerline of the wheels, to optimize stability during cornering. At the rear, the car has a compact multi-link suspension that features coil springs, telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar. While the chassis and body are made from steel, parts of the suspension are made of aluminum to help reduce weight.

Large wheels and powerful brakes. The range of wheels for the ID.4 starts with 19-inch aluminum alloy wheels on Pro and AWD Pro models. Adding the Gradient package (available only with Pro S (Statement) trims) upgrades to 20-inch wheels, and these come standard on 1^st Edition models. The wheels are aerodynamically optimized by their flat design, and the tires have low rolling resistance. They are 235 millimeters wide at the front and 255 millimeters at the rear.

The robust E-SUV has powerful brakes—the discs on the front axle of the ID.4 models with the 82-kWh (gross) battery are 13.4 inches in diameter on rear-wheel-drive models and 14.1 inches on AWD models. Drum brakes operate on the rear wheels—as EVs rely on regenerative braking, disc brakes on the rear can be less effective than drums after long periods of not being put to heavy use.

Driving Mode Selection. The ID.4 features Driving Mode Selection, which gives the driver a choice of four modes. Eco, Comfort and Sport are preconfigured. In Custom mode, the driver is given additional setting options on the central display: They can select between Comfort and Sport for various driving features—in other words, even more comfortable or even more dynamic driving.

The Vehicle Dynamics Manager. The ID.4 can take corners stably and naturally—thanks to the electronic Vehicle Dynamics Manager, which works closely with Electronic Stability Control (ESC). Volkswagen first introduced it in the European Mk8 Golf GTI. The Vehicle Dynamics Manager works in the background to control the wheel-selective brake interventions of the XDS® electronic transverse drive lock. It uses a digital target model to achieve optimum driving and steering behavior. As soon as the vehicle turns into a corner, the ID.4 behaves in a spontaneous, linear and accurate manner.

The ESC in turn cooperates closely with the control units for the electric motor and the power electronics. Although a rear-wheel-drive car tends to oversteer in extreme circumstances, this networking is designed to ensure that the rear wheels of the ID.4 find grip in different situations—during acceleration, when cornering, and when the brake regeneration takes place. This type of traction control is speed based and is another innovation from Volkswagen. It takes place automatically every millisecond, and is so fast and non-intrusive that the driver hardly feels any intervention.

Images courtesy of Volkswagen