Vizzion Quest

Although Volkswagen of America is calling it a crossover, the I.D. Space Vizzion concept vehicle displayed at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, on a fast track to become a production car in few years, is actually a wagon.

The I.D. Space Vizzion's name refers not to outer space (though it does look like a car George Jetson might drive if the cars on "The Jetsons" didn't fly) but to the vast space inside - plenty of room for four with space for additional third-row seating.  The seats themselves are upholstered with a faux-leather made of waste from apple-juice processing mixed with 20 percent polyurethane.  Outside, the sleek styling produces a drag coefficient of 0.24. Its performance as been rated at 275 horsepower from an electric motor on the rear axle that propels the I.D. Space Vizzion to 60 mph in five seconds, with an 82-kilowatt battery that can travel 300 miles on single charge.

But the fact that it's a wagon may be the biggest news . . . rivaled by the bombshell Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh dropped at the Los Angeles Auto Show.  He thinks a backlash against sport utility vehicles is coming, and it's going to be led by the younger buyers entering the auto market against the older Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who made the SUV the modern American family car.  And the I.D. Space Vizzion - and its companion I.D. Vizzion sedan, first displayed at Geneva in 2018 and planned for production as the ID.5 - demonstrate how flexible the MEB electric platform is and how adaptable in can be to changing trends.

Volkswagen may very well be in good standing in the new-car market if Keogh's prediction comes true - and I obviously hope it does.  Incidentally, the MQB gasoline-powered platform is also adaptable to different models and styles, as it underpins both the Golf and the Tiguan, for example. I only hope the anti-SUV backlash comes sooner rather than later, the better to ensure more sensible electric cars for the U.S. market - and the base eighth-generation Golf. ;-)

Continue to keep with the Mark 8 Golf and its chances or inclusion in VW's U.S. lineup at my new blog.