Volkswagen up to 20,000 pre-orders for its ID.3 electric hatchback

A Volkswagen board member confirmed on Twitter today that the carmaker has now received more than 20,000 pre-orders for its ID.3 electric hatchback.

Board member Jürgen Stackmann tweeted that VW has received 20,000 pre-bookings since reservations opened a month ago:

#GoodNews: we have now exceeded 20,000 #VWID3 pre-bookings. This is already impressive, given that #prebooking only started one month ago! We originally wanted to reach 30,000 by the #IAA in September. #VWID #emobility #NowYouCan 👉 https://t.co/JI1pgsArp4 pic.twitter.com/XSJfHWERgT

— Jürgen Stackmann (@jstackmann) June 4, 2019

Stackmann also said Volkswagen set a goal for 30,000 by September, and that seems well on its way to happening. Customers can register online with a €1,000 deposit for a special edition ID.3 1^ST hatchback — that edition is limited to the first 30,000 vehicles.

However, VW previously announced it already received more than 10,000 pre-orders across Europe within the first 24 hours of availability, so the pace seems to have slowed considerably.

Tesla claimed to receive 232,000 pre-orders in 24 hours for its Model 3 in 2016, although those were worldwide numbers.

Volkswagen’s ID.3 1^ST will come equipped with the mid-size battery option — a capacity of 58 kWh for a range of 420 km (261 miles), based on the WLTP standard. The production version of the ID.3, still not expected to be delivered until mid-2020, will offer three different battery packs — 45 kWh, 58 kWh, or 77 kWh.

On Monday, Volkswagen announced that its ID.R electric racecar completed the fastest emission-free lap ever on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife.