BERLIN, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen revealed details of the first model of its new fully electric ID.3 family of cars, the German car manufacturer announced on Wednesday.
The ID.3 model is the "third major chapter of strategic importance in the history of the Volkswagen brand after the Beetle and the first Golf," said Juergen Stackmann, member of the board of management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for sales and marketing.
The world premiere of the ID.3 is scheduled for September at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt am Main, said the company.
Volkswagen will be offering its fully electric car for less than 30,000 euros (33,580 U.S. dollars) in Germany, with initial production planned for the end of 2019 and the first vehicles expected to be delivered in mid-2020.
"While the Beetle once mobilized the masses and the Golf has brought innovations in every generation, the ID. will make e-mobility attractive for broad customer groups," the car maker emphasized.
In the future, all members of the electric car model family will be called ID., which stood "for intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies," said the company.
Volkswagen said it wanted to deliver an average of more than 100,000 ID.3s per year to customers.
The goal was "to make electric mobility suitable for the masses," said Stackmann.
The company also announced that it was offering a limited number of 30,000 ID.3 vehicles for pre-booking in Europe. The limited edition pre-booking models would have a driving range of 420 kilometers and would cost less than 40,000 euros.
Potential buyers will not yet be able see the fully electric car in its entirety and Volkswagen's website was only showing the camouflaged prototype of the car.
Volkswagen recently announced that it is aiming to sell 22 million electric vehicles within the next ten years.
Three years ago, the German government presented a package of measures to promote electric mobility with an investment volume of just under one billion euros.
In 2018, however, less than 200,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars were registered in Germany, according to figures from the General German Automobile Club (ADAC).
