Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 2024 announced with infotainment screen and UI upgrades

Volkswagen has announced that the next generations of its "versatile electric SUV" and "SUV coupé" can upgrade to the marque's most advanced "infotainment system with intuitive operation". It falls in line with that of the ID.7 by moving the drive selector onto the steering wheel to allow for a larger main display. It is enhanced in size to 12.9 inches (32.8 centimeters), although it still has touch sliders for some climate and media controls - they do light up in this iteration, at least.

Then again, this latest attempt to address some of the hottest criticisms of the ID.4 and .5 lines are only available in the 2024 cars' Infotainment Package configurations. Then again, the cars' models now boast an electric drive upgrade across the board.

It is backed to boost torque by up to 75% in the ID.4 and ID.5 Pro models, now also rated for a WLTP range of up to 550 kilometers (~342 miles) or up to 556 kilometers (~346 miles) respectively thanks to the 77kWh battery from the ID.7.

Both Pro models are still rated to charge at up to 135kW, however - unless you go for a new all-wheel-drive model, in which case 175kW via DC is now an option. That configuration can also get back on the road for up to 178km after charging for just 10 minutes. The base ID.4 Pure, on the other hand, makes do with a 5kW upgrade for 115kW charging.

Those upgrades are also rated to level the ID.4 and ID.5 Pro's output up to 210kW (~286 horsepower), or 250kW (~340 horsepower) in the GTX models, which are now also estimated to go from 0 to 100km/h (~62 mph) in just 5.4 seconds.

Volkswagen also asserts that all these new ID.-series upgrades still start at €40,335 (~US$42,720) - although that only applies to the vanilla ID.4 Pure with a 52kWh battery. It can, nevertheless, be ordered with an "enhanced" augmented reality head-up display and the latest version of the marque's IDA voice assistant.

The cars are available to configure on Volkswagen's German website from now, with no word on when or if they might transfer to other markets such as the US.

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