The US-bound ID.4 hasn’t even broken cover yet and we’re already getting reports about its price. This time, VW USA president Scott Keogh, says that “our goal is to make the comparison to a comparable internal combustion car—for example, versus a Tiguan,” 

Keogh made the comments at the Frankfurt Auto Show, speaking to Green Car Reports. The comments are particularly interesting because the Tiguan-sized ID.4 would be significantly undercutting other EV crossovers if it was priced similarly to the Tiguan.

“When I can put these two apples to apples. I think that is positioning it for the masses,” continued Keogh. To continue the arboreal metaphor, that old chestnut does not necessarily mean that ID.4 will start at $24,295, like the Tiguan, though.

When asked whether that will include tax credits, Keogh demurred, saying that the company would get to that and that “I think I would include the price of ownership and all that.”

For comparison, the ID.3 starts at 30,000 euros, whereas the Golf starts at 21,415 in Germany. The TDI, meanwhile, starts at a little more than 24,000 euros—against whose pricing VW has long said it would compete. With Germany’s 5,000 Euro credit, that brings the ID.3 to within a thousand Euros of each other. And if you argue that you don’t have to pay for fuel anymore, just electricity, you could make a case for the ID.3 actually being cheaper.

Although measuring European prices against American ones can feel like comparing apples and oranges, it is at least an insight into the strategy that VW is likely—though not guaranteed—to take.

If we, for the sake of argument, were to take the price of a 4Motion Tiguan since we don’t have TDIs anymore ($25,000-ish) and add the maximum federal tax credit ($7,500), and added another grand for good measure, that would all add up to about $33,500—which is just a skosh more than the e-Golf despite getting significantly more range and offering more interior volume than the stopgap Golf.

And with Tesla’s similarly-sized Model Y expected to start $48,000, a starting price in the low 30s would still make it look like a red hot deal when it comes electric crossovers.
We might get a better idea of what the ID.4 will cost when it is revealed in February, as Jurgen Stackmann, a VW board member, said in Frankfurt.