What's all this about?

It's the fourth machine that will come under Volkswagen's futuristic, electric vehicle (EV) banner known as ID. This one is called the Vizzion and it follows the ID hatchback itself (which'll be the first to go on sale in 2020), the ID Crozz II SUV and the ID Buzz microbus concept, all of which have been confirmed for general sale between now and 2030. And that's to say nothing of the Sedric, either.

What's the Vizzion all about, then?

Well, if you didn't like the Sedric, you might want to look away from the Vizzion. A grandiose premium-class car, it nevertheless is a Level 5 autonomy machine designed for use in 2030. That means it is self-driving via its learning, on-board artificial intelligence and there is absolutely no recourse for a human to take control of it. Ever. Look, there's no steering wheel and no dashboard in the interior at all. Hence why it's more like the Sedric, and not the other ID models (which do at least allow for some motive control by fleshy, carbon-based lifeforms).

Is the Vizzion the end of cars like the BMW 5 Series?

Possibly. Inside, it has four chairs and a large glasshouse, which can be electrically darkened to almost total opacity to ensure celebrity occupants don't get papped. Gesture and voice controls allow the human occupants to determine where the ID Vizzion is going to go, but after that they're reduced to watching films on the augmented reality 'HoloLens' - or conducting business meetings or watching the satnav and so on. Occupants' well-being is monitored by the 'virtual assistant', which can adjust ambient lighting or the climate control automatically if it thinks it will cheer up the humans within, and the cloud-connected services in the ID Vizzion allow it to even adjust the seats to specific individual settings, once it has recognised who is sitting in them via biometric facial recognition.

I don't like all this. What about the design and motive power?

Outside, the Vizzion is a colossal 5,163mm long, of which much is taken up by the 3,100mm wheelbase and vast roof, and little is accounted for by front/rear overhangs; that's why the ID is so big and lounge-like inside. It's also 1,947mm wide and 1,506mm tall, with gigantic 24-inch alloys residing in the arches. Clever HD Matrix LED headlights and other illumination can be seen all around the car - the rear windscreen, for example, is one massive OLED screen and it can display a larger and larger third-level brake light, depending on how hard the Volkswagen is decelerating - while the doors open in opposite directions (the back items being rear-hinged) to allow very easy access to a cabin that lacks for a B-pillar too. The boot holds 565 litres, which is handy.

You said earlier that the Vizzion was an EV...

Yup. A whopping 111kWh lithium-ion battery in the floor space allows the car to go up to 413 miles on a single charge and it powers two electric motors, a 75kW (102hp) coaxial drive on the front axle and a compact 150kW (204hp) item driving the rear. That allows for all-wheel drive, despite the lack of a physical propshaft between the axles, and the maximum output is the sum of its parts: 225kW, or 306hp. That's a healthy number, but the Vizzion is limited to 112mph thanks to its Level 5 status, although a 6.3-second 0-62mph run is pretty decent for a five-metre-long EV.

Matt Robinson - 5 Mar 2018