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Volkswagen won't offer software-locked battery packs

Volkswagen won't offer software-locked battery packs

"It would be quite hideous to do this," one of its top executives said.

Volkswagen recently released preliminary details about the ID.3, its first purpose-designed electric car. The Golf-sized hatchback will ultimately be available with three different driving ranges, and they will each correspond to a specific battery pack. The German firm doesn't want to offer software-locked batteries.

"It would be quite hideous to do this. You would put all of the battery capacity in a car that's not using it. It's not a very wise way to use raw materials and resources," Volkswagen board member Jurgen Stackmann told Digital Trends.

The lithium-ion battery pack line-up will include 45-, 58-, and 77-kilowatt-hour packs. The smallest pack will deliver up to 205 miles of range when tested using the WLTP cycle. The bigger two units will offer 260 and 341 miles, respectively. While the ID.3 is unlikely to receive a pack bigger than 77 kWh, Stackmann said bigger models built on the MEB platform -- like the production variants of the ID Buzz and the ID Roomzz concepts -- will come with larger batteries to offer more range. He didn't reveal how big the company will go, but the aforementioned Buzz used a 111-kWh battery bigger than any pack currently in production.

Additional specifications about the ID.3 remain guarded. We know it will ship with a single electric motor mounted over the rear axle, meaning it will be rear-wheel drive, and Stackmann didn't rule out an all-wheel drive model with an additional electric motor up front. More details will be released in the weeks leading up to the car's global introduction during the 2019 Frankfurt auto show.