VW ID 2all Retro Gauge Options Bring Back Old Beetle and Golf Designs
If automakers insist on going to all screens, this is the only way forward.
It didn't take long for Volkswagen to read our letter. The VW ID 2all concept unveiled last week for Europe finally puts all those digital displays to work, correctly. The automaker showed off a customized digital infotainment and instrument cluster that would mimic the old displays from the VW Beetle, Jetta, and others.
The VW ID 2all concept is the automaker's audible from its ID Life concept unveiled in 2021, which reportedly helped to shove former Volkswagen design boss Jozef Kaban out the door. The ID 2all concept is infinitely more modern, relative to the ID Life concept, and looks closer to a mainstream Golf than any heritage model. (Its targeted price of just over $21,400 (20,000 euros) may be a tip to yesteryear, but we're not complaining.)
VW says the production version of the ID 2all will go on sale in Europe in 2025, but so far they haven't said much about its fate in the U.S. That's likely because the ID 2all is closer in size to the VW Polo than it is the Golf, which might be too small for buyers' tastes Stateside. Its top speed is less than 100 mph, and its 0-60 mph time is around 7 seconds, which is entirely appropriate for darting in and out of narrow streets in Europe but may not cut the mustard in the wide open stretches of Wyoming. The ID 2all's claimed range of about 280 miles might not be so bad, but we'll have to wait and see.
Of course, what we can see are the retro gauges, spotted by Daniel Golson, and they're pretty sweet. VW showed off two screens in its debut video for the ID 2all and we can see two settings: Retro and Classic modes. The Classic mode is a dead-ringer for anyone who remembers the 1960s and 1970s VW Beetles (my mom had one) and looks the jazz. Retro mode borrows gauges from the Golf Mk 1 (Rabbit, if you must) and looks similarly sweet. There are a few gauges we'd like to see, too. The Mk 4 Golf's blue gauges were pretty rad and the Scirocco's chrome cluster, just to name a few.
But the ID 2all's arrival in the U.S. is certainly not guaranteed, nor is it a certainty that retro gauges make their way into the production vehicle at all. But what we can be sure of is this: Bringing back some cool dials in today's VWs would go a long way to being cool again. Your move, Volkswagen.
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