Volkswagen ID7 S: twin brother of electric ID7

Lovers of automotive curiosities will undoubtedly have endless fun on the Chinese car market. Naturally, dozens, if not hundreds, of models are sold that you cannot buy in Europe, often from brands that are not active here despite the flood of Chinese brands with European ambitions. Brands that we have known here for decades often pursue a strategy that is difficult to understand in China, complete with sometimes multiple joint ventures that sell essentially the same models separately. Think of Honda, but also certainly of Volkswagen. The Volkswagen ID7 that you know in the Netherlands is sold in China by the FAW-Volkswagen partnership. Volkswagen’s other Chinese joint venture, SAIC-Volkswagen, does not have to do without ID7, but will get its own version of it. This Volkswagen ID7 S.

The Volkswagen ID7 as you can buy it here.

In April last year, SAIC-Volkswagen already looked ahead to the arrival of its own variant of the Volkswagen ID7. At the time, the car was shown in a camouflage print and carried the name ID.Next. We found the first photos and the first information of the final version in the database of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It is called ID7 S and is different from ‘our ID7’ on both the front and the back.

The Volkswagen ID7 S has its own headlights and different bumper work. Just like the well-known Volkswagen ID7, the headlights are connected by an LED strip, although the LED strip now runs at the bottom of the headlights instead of above them. The strip also runs all the way under the headlights, while on the international ID7 it is only between the viewers. The ID7 S is also different from its already unveiled twin brother at the rear. It gets its own unique rear light section and here too we see different bumper work. At 2.97 meters, the wheelbase of the ID7 S is the same as that of the ID7-without-S. However, with its length of 5.03 meters, the Volkswagen ID7 S is about 7 centimeters longer than the ID7 that you can order in Europe.

The ID7 is not the first ID model from Volkswagen to have a twin brother in China. Volkswagen’s Chinese partnerships sell the ID4 as you know it in Europe as ID4X and ID4 Crozz. There are also ID models in China that do not have a European version at all: the ID6 X and ID6 Crozz. These are electric SUVs related to the ID4 and ID5, the first of which are supplied in China by SAIC-Volkswagen and the second by FAW-Volkswagen.