Volkswagen kickstarts model onslaught in China with three concepts

On the 2025 Shanghai motor show, Volkwagen unveiled not one but three almost production-ready concept cars: the ID. Aura, ID. Era, and ID. Evo.

Not only do these cars preview a production vehicle for every of Volkswagen’s three local joint ventures, but based on Andreas Mindt, the Volkswagen brand’s head of design, they show the various design languages the brand can be employing for those joint ventures.

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The ID. Era is a full-size three-row crossover developed for Volkswagen SAIC partnership, and has a spread prolonged EV drivetrain with a small petrol engine able to recharging the battery pack when it starts to run low.

Volkwagen says the ID. Era is able to 300km of pure electric driving, and has an extra 700km of range when the petrol engine kicks in.

Stylistically, the ID. Era is the blockiest of the three concepts, although subtle bulges and scallops on the side surfaces stop it from appearing too monolithic and slabby. All of the pillars are blacked out for a floating roof look.

Squint and it looks quite much like a Range Rover Sport, although the Rangie doesn’t feature an array of black rectangles wrapping around the underside of the vehicle.

The ID. Evo is a complementary large crossover, but is a pure-electric automobile to be built by Volkswagen Anhui, the German automaker’s only Chinese three way partnership where it is almost all shareholder.

Built on an 800V electrical platform, it includes a zonal electronic architecture, access to a “wide selection of recent digital services”, and over-the-air updates at “short intervals”.

The Evo’s rounder shape, gloss black lower body cladding that lowers the automobile’s visual height, and Alfa-esque alloy wheels, make it a sportier looking proposition than the Era.

The ID. Aura can be built by FAW Volkswagen, and is the primary concept based on the Compact Most important Platform (CMP) that Volkswagen is engineering specifically for the Chinese market with a zonal electrical architecture, and a user interface patterned on smartphone operating systems.

Although the automobile is pitched on the “price-conscious A-segment”, the Aura can be said to have loads of AI computing power to enable automated driving, and a humanoid assistant to simplify interaction with the infotainment system and vehicle features.

Creases above the wheel arches, and a crisp shoulder line lend the Aura a level dynamism that’s arguably lacking within the ID. 7 sedan.

The ID. Aura, ID. Era, and ID. Evo represent the primary salvo in a product onslaught from Volkswagen. Due to the rise of locally-developed electric vehicles, Volkswagen lost its sales crown in China to BYD in 2023.

Hoping to regain some lost ground, Volkswagen intends to launch 30 latest cars within the Chinese market by the tip of 2027. Twenty of those can be “latest energy vehicles”, or EVs and plug-in hybrids.

Tellingly, the German brand isn’t aiming to be reclaim the highest podium position. Slightly, Thomas Schäfer, the Volkswagen brand’s CEO, says with its “In China, For China” strategy it’s aiming “to stay in pole position amongst foreign automakers in China”.