Volkswagen of America revealed today that the 2024 VW ID.4 electric compact SUV is getting a major upgrade for its 82 kWh battery models – here’s the lowdown.
2024 VW ID.4
The Chattanooga, Tennessee-made 2024 ID.4 will be available in three trim levels – Standard/Pro, S, and S Plus – with the option of 62 kWh or 82 kWh batteries, as well as RWD or AWD.
But it’s the 82 kWh battery models that are getting spruced up, so let’s first look at their horsepower upgrade. Those models are getting a new performance drive unit with greater horsepower and range compared to the 2023 model. The RWD model will produce 282 horsepower, and the AWD model will make around 330 horsepower.
For an AWD model comparison, the 2023 ID.4 AWD Pro S with an 82 kWh battery produces 295 horsepower, so that’s a nice boost.
The 2024 ID.4’s horsepower increase will boost acceleration and deliver enhanced range, but VW isn’t quite ready to reveal what the new range will be – the automaker says that “EPA-estimated ranges for the 2024 ID.4 will be available closer to market introduction.”
On the infotainment front, the 82 kWh ID.4 models are getting a larger display. The 2023 models have a 12-inch display, but 2024 models will boast a 12.9-inch display with backlit sliders, as well as what VW says is “a new and more intuitive climate control interface and a revised infotainment menu. “
The 2024 82 kWh models will also have a new shifter position and a revised steering wheel layout:
They’ll also have ventilated front-row seats, and S Plus models will have a premium harman/kardon audio system with nine speakers plus a subwoofer and a 16-channel amplifer. (The 2023 model has seven speakers plus a subwoofer.)
As for wheel size, ID.4 Standard AWD models will feature larger, 20-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, and S Plus vehicles are jumping from 20-inch to 21-inch machined alloy wheels.
Pricing for the 2024 ID.4 will be released closer to its on-sale date in early 2024.
Electrek’s Take
I drive a 2023 ID.4 AWD Pro S with an 82 kWh battery, so I’m kinda experiencing a little bit of FOMO about these upgrades. But as new models are introduced, improvements are expected – that’s the way it should be.
I’m intrigued to see what the 2024 models’ ranges are on the 82 kWh models, as well as what the prices will be. VW notes in its announcement that 2023 models qualify for the full $7,500 Inflation Reduction Act tax credit, but doesn’t explicitly say that next year’s models will qualify. So we’ll see.
The backlit sliders will improve climate control and volume ergonomics, and I’m looking forward to see what the more intuitive climate control looks like. I think the automatic climate control in the 2023 ID.4 is pretty good; the only time I need to help it is when my windscreen fogs up. Maybe they’ll improve that.
What I do spot is that the hazard button, which is directly below the screen on the 2023 model, has been moved further down, between the air vents (see the main photo). This is a big win. I cannot tell you the number of times I or my passenger has accidentally turned the hazards lights on because the sensitive button is directly beneath the volume slider, so the palm of my hand bumps it. It’s extremely annoying, not to mention potentially dangerous.
There are other buttons missing beneath the screen in the 2024 models, such as the “climate” and “mode” buttons, so it will be interesting to find out where they’ve been relocated to.
I can’t really tell when comparing 2023 to 2024 what the revised steering wheel layout is apart from “view” being moved from the bottom to the bottom left, and it’s not clear to me what the new bottom “fast forward” arrows will do. Maybe it’s for music.
The chunky shifter position has been moved off the screen behind the steering wheel to what looks like a more traditional position on the steering column. This is a welcome change, as the 2023 shifter position is a little awkward and isn’t intuitive.
I’m going to keep an eye out for when the 2024 models arrive at my local dealer and will definitely want to test drive them to see if these upgrades really do make a difference.
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HOUSTON — Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms on Wednesday said they support efforts to at least triple nuclear energy worldwide by 2050.
The tech companies signed a pledge first adopted in December 2023 by more than 20 countries, including the U.S., at the U.N. Climate Change Conference. Financial institutions including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley backed the pledge last year.
The pledge is nonbinding, but highlights the growing support for expanding nuclear power among leading industries, finance and governments.
Amazon, Google and Meta are increasingly important drivers of energy demand in the U.S. as they build out artificial intelligence centers. The tech sector is turning to nuclear power after concluding that renewables alone won’t provide enough reliable power for their energy needs.
Amazon and Google announced investments last October to help launch small nuclear reactors, technology still under development that the industry hopes will reduce the cost and timelines that have plagued new reactor builds in the U.S.
Meta issued a call in December for nuclear developers to submit proposals to help the tech company add up to four gigawatts of new nuclear in the U.S.
The pledge signed Wednesday was led by the World Nuclear Association on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.
China’s so-called “DeepSeek moment” is likely to be good news in the global race to develop artificial intelligence models that can carry out more complex tasks, according to Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman of French power-equipment maker Schneider Electric.
“I actually think its good news. We need AI at every level,” Tricoire told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore on Wednesday.
“We need AI to optimize your whole enterprise at all levels, so that you can buy better, consume better, decide better, source better. To do all of this, we need models to operate on a smaller scale,” he added.
Tricoire said the emergence of Chinese AI app DeepSeek showed that AI models can achieve the same results as some of its more established U.S. rivals, but with a much smaller model.
It “will actually spread AI at all levels of the architecture much faster,” Tricoire said. He added that DeepSeek’s blockbuster R1 model would be “fantastic” for improving safety and reliability when deploying AI on dangerous equipment.
“The spread of AI models at every level of what we need is actually very good news,” Tricoire said.
His comments come shortly after Schneider Electric reported record sales and profits in 2024.
The company, which has been a big beneficiary of the artificial intelligence trend, raised its 2025 profit margin following robust fourth-quarter demand for data centers.
Shares of Schneider Electric rose 33% in 2024, following a 39% upswing in 2023. The Paris-listed stock is down around 7% year to date, however, with China’s recent AI push sparking concerns about AI investment and tech sector returns.
Data centers, which consume an ever-increasing amount of energy, represent a key piece of infrastructure behind modern-day cloud computing and AI applications.
A Northvolt building in Sweden, photographed in February 2022.
Mikael Sjoberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Struggling electric vehicle battery manufacturer Northvolt on Wednesday said it has filed for bankruptcy in Sweden.
The firm said it that it submitted the insolvency filing after an “exhaustive effort to explore all available means to secure a viable financial and operational future for the company.”
“Like many companies in the battery sector, Northvolt has experienced a series of compounding challenges in recent months that eroded its financial position, including rising capital costs, geopolitical instability, subsequent supply chain disruptions, and shifts in market demand,” Northvolt noted.
“Further to this backdrop, the company has faced significant internal challenges in its ramp-up of production, both in ways that were expected by engagement in what is a highly complex industry, and others which were unforeseen.”
Northvolt’s collapse into insolvency deals a major blow to Europe’s ambition to become self-sufficient and build out its own EV battery supply chain to catch up to China, which leads as the world’s largest market for electric vehicles by a wide margin.
The Swedish battery firm had been seeking financial support to continue its operations amid an ongoing Chapter 11 restructuring process in the United States, which it kicked off in November.
“Despite liquidity support from our lenders and key counterparties, the company was unable to secure the necessary financial conditions to continue in its current form,” Northvolt said Wednesday.
Northvolt said a Swedish court-appointed trustee will oversee the company’s bankruptcy process, including the sale of the business and its assets and settlement of outstanding obligations.