VW plans technical improvements to MEB

VW is planning technical improvements for its MEB electric car platform. According to a presentation this week at the UBS Paris Electric Car Day by Silke Bagschik, sales and marketing manager for the ID range, VW is aiming for charging powers of over 200 kW and ranges of up to 700 kilometres for the MEB.

In addition, the German carmaker’s presentation showed acceleration of the all-wheel drive models is to be “around 5.5 seconds”. Currently, the factory specification for a VW ID.5 GTX for the sprint from standstill to 100 km/h is 6.3 seconds.

With the range target of 700 kilometres, the ID.5 with rear-wheel drive and the 77 kWh battery currently has a maximum range of 523 kilometres according to WLTP, while the ID.3 Pro S with the same battery has a range of up to 553 kilometres. It is not known how Volkswagen intends to increase the range by around 150 kilometres. In addition to efficiency measures on the vehicle itself and better software, cell chemistry naturally plays an important role.

The Volkswagen presentation also gave a preview of the upcoming models, but the core of these plans had already been revealed earlier. Nevertheless, model planning could also have a major influence on the possible range: With the Aero B study, VW is known to be planning an e-sedan in Passat format. Such a vehicle would be significantly lower than the ID.5, rather as high as an ID.3. Thanks to the elongated and flat-sloping saloon rear, however, the airflow is significantly better than in the compact ID.3 with its steeply sloping rear window – so the saloon body could also result in a significant range plus with the same drive.

There is also some ambiguity about the 200 kW charging power: with the update to software 3.0, VW gives 135 or 150 kW as the maximum DC charging power for the MEB models with the 77 kWh battery, depending on the version. Corresponding vehicles have already been sighted at public charging stations with peak values of around 170 kW.

If the 200 kW now targeted is only to be achieved as a short-term peak, the improvement over the status of the software 3.0 would be rather small. However, if it is the level that the vehicle can maintain over a certain period of time – such as the communicated 135 kW – this would be an enormous improvement and would mean a significant reduction in charging time. More than 200 kW charging power is not possible with the MEB’s operating voltage of 400 volts, as the CCS standard is limited to a current of 500 amps.

Reporting by Sebastian Schaal, Germany

electrek.co, volkswagenag.com (PDF, S. 17+18)