Volkswagen has added the smaller battery it always said would follow, and it does what a smaller battery is supposed to do: it moves the ID. Polo under €25,000. The car is orderable now with a 37kWh pack alongside the 52kWh version already on sale.
The numbers
| 37 kWh Trend | 37 kWh Life and Style | |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €24,995 | €29,195 |
| Motor output | 85 kW (116 PS) | 85 kW, or 99 kW (135 PS) in Style |
The pack is a lithium-iron-phosphate unit with 37kWh of net capacity, rated at up to 334km WLTP. DC charging peaks at 90kW, and Volkswagen quotes about 23 minutes for 10 to 80 per cent.
Both battery sizes can be ordered now. Deliveries of the 37kWh cars follow a few weeks behind the market launch of the 52kWh version. A GTI with 166kW is expected in autumn 2026.
What €24,995 actually gets you
The headline price is the Trend trim, which is the entry point of the range. Moving up to Life or Style lifts the floor to €29,195, and Style is where the 99kW motor appears. In other words the €24,995 figure and the more powerful drivetrain do not come in the same car.
The LFP chemistry is the more interesting choice. It is cheaper and more tolerant of routine charging to 100 per cent than the nickel-based chemistries in the larger pack, which suits the use case this version is aimed at — a car charged at home, driven locally, and only occasionally asked to do a motorway run.
How far 334 km really goes
WLTP figures flatter urban and suburban driving and overstate motorway range. A 37kWh pack is a commuter and second-car proposition, and Volkswagen is not pretending otherwise; that is what the 52kWh version exists for.
The charging figures are the ones to weigh. At 90kW peak, a 23-minute stop covers roughly 70 per cent of the pack — useful, but a genuinely small buffer to add on a long journey. If you regularly drive more than a couple of hundred kilometres at a stretch, the larger battery is the honest recommendation.
Where it sits in the European market
Under €25,000 is now a contested price band rather than an empty one. Geely's E2 arrived in Germany at €19,990, and Chinese brands have been setting the floor in the segment for two years. Volkswagen's answer is not to match that number but to get within striking distance of it with a car built and badged in Europe, in the nameplate European buyers know best.
Whether that is worth roughly €5,000 is the question every buyer in this segment now faces. What is not in doubt is that the German market has the volume to answer it — BEVs took 29.3 per cent of registrations in July 2026, and the compact segment is where that share is won.