Volkswagen has done something it spent five years refusing to do: it has put a familiar name on an electric car. The concept we met as the ID. 2all is now the ID. Polo, and it is on sale in the UK from 23,945 pounds.
That raises the obvious question, which is whether this is really a Polo. The answer is more interesting than yes or no. It is 21mm shorter than the petrol Polo and has 90 litres more boot. It has physical buttons and a proper instrument display, both of which Volkswagen had spent years taking away. And the petrol Polo is not going anywhere, so for now you can buy either.
Here is what is confirmed, what is not, and the two numbers that are circulating widely and are wrong.
VW ID. Polo
The electric one
VW Polo, petrol
The one it sits beside
The Short Answer
It is on sale now. Order books opened on 30 July 2026 for the launch editions and 10 September 2026 for the rest of the range, and cars have been with customers since the autumn. This is not a reveal or a register-your-interest exercise.
It is bigger inside than a petrol Polo and smaller outside. That is the headline, and it comes from Volkswagen's own figures rather than ours.
It gets the smaller grant, not the bigger one. Volkswagen UK confirms 1,500 pounds rather than 3,750, which is the single most common thing people get wrong about this car.
Is It Actually a Polo?
Volkswagen put the comparison in its own launch material, which is unusually helpful of it.
| ID. Polo | Petrol Polo | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 4,053mm | 4,074mm | 21mm shorter |
| Width | 1,816mm | 1,751mm | 65mm wider |
| Height | 1,530mm | 1,451mm | 79mm taller |
| Wheelbase | 2,600mm | 2,552mm | 48mm longer |
| Boot, seats up | 441 litres | 351 litres | 90 litres more |
| Boot, seats folded | 1,240 litres | 1,125 litres | 115 litres more |
So it occupies slightly less road and considerably more air, and the 48mm of extra wheelbase with no motor and gearbox up front is where the cabin space comes from. Volkswagen claims the 441 litre boot beats a Golf's, and on Volkswagen's own published figures it does. There is a false floor with storage underneath it.
Volkswagen's own words are that the combustion Polo will continue to be offered in parallel, and that cars with conventional drives keep their previous names. It has not published an end date, so anything you read claiming the petrol Polo dies in a particular year is speculation. Worth knowing that the petrol car is now built in South Africa, because European Polo production ended in 2024 to free up the factory for these electric ones.
Range, Power and the Number to Ignore
| 37kWh | 52kWh | |
|---|---|---|
| Range, Volkswagen UK | Up to 203 miles | Up to 281 miles |
| Power | 99kW / 135PS | 155kW / 211PS |
| Peak DC charging | About 90kW | 105kW |
| 10 to 80% | About 23 minutes | About 24 minutes |
| Onboard AC | 11kW | 11kW |
| Vehicle to load | Up to 3.6kW | Up to 3.6kW |
Volkswagen's own pre-launch material briefed a 130kW peak for the 52kWh car. The final homologated figure is 105kW. The 130 number is still circulating widely because it came from a credible source, and that source was Volkswagen contradicting its later self. Same story on the battery: you will see 38kWh and 56kWh quoted, including on Wikipedia, and Volkswagen publishes 37 and 52 as usable figures and has never published a gross capacity at all.
Two honest limitations. Every version except the GTI is limited to 99mph, which is fine in Britain and less fine on a German motorway. And Volkswagen publishes its acceleration as 0-100km/h rather than 0-62mph, so when you see it compared against something else, check both numbers are measuring the same thing.
The 85kW entry car sold in Germany is not offered in the UK. We get the Life and the Style.
The Buttons Are Back, and This Is the Real News
Volkswagen spent several years replacing switches with touch panels and has publicly admitted that was a trend-driven mistake. The ID. Polo is the first car to deliver the reversal, and it is not a token gesture.
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| Instrument display | A 10 inch Digital Cockpit, standard, in front of the driver |
| Central screen | 13 inch touchscreen |
| Audio | A physical rotary controller |
| Climate | A bank of physical switches below the screen |
| Volume | A physical dial |
| Windows | Four separate switches, replacing the old two-button arrangement |
If you have driven an ID.3 and spent the first fortnight hunting for the rear window switch, that is the change. There is also an optional retro instrument display that digitally recreates the layout from the facelifted Golf I, which is a nice piece of showing off.
Elsewhere: 12-way electric front seats with driver memory, optional three-setting pneumatic massage, an optional panoramic glass roof and an optional 425 watt Harman Kardon system.
The Grant, and the Bit Nobody Can Explain
Volkswagen UK confirms the ID. Polo qualifies for the Electric Car Grant at 1,500 pounds, which is the lower of the two bands. Not 3,750. The retailer applies it to the invoice at the point of order, you do not claim it yourself, and it cannot be claimed retrospectively.
Volkswagen's own offers page lists 37kWh trims alongside 52kWh ones in its grant section. Several independent outlets, working from the scheme data, say only the 52kWh 211PS versions qualify. Those cannot both be right. Volkswagen itself tells customers to speak to a retailer to clarify the price and eligibility, which is a reasonable thing for it to say and not much help when you are choosing a battery size. Tell us which version you want and we will get the grant position confirmed in writing before you order.
As for why a Spanish-built car with Volkswagen's own cells lands in the lower band, nobody can tell you. The government publishes that vehicles must meet minimum sustainability criteria and does not publish the carbon thresholds or the per-model reasoning. We can tell you the band because Volkswagen states it. We cannot tell you why, and neither can anyone else from public sources.
Worth noting the cap, too. The scheme's headline price limit is 37,000 pounds while Volkswagen's own page refers to 42,000, which is the allowance that lets dearer versions of an already-qualifying car in. The ID. Polo is comfortably under either.
The Siblings, Because You Will Meet Them
Four cars share this platform and the same two batteries, and all four are on sale, so this is a crowded corner of the market rather than a single new arrival.
| Car | From | Built at |
|---|---|---|
| VW ID. Polo | 23,945 pounds | Martorell, Spain |
| Cupra Raval | 23,785 pounds | Martorell, Spain |
| Skoda Epiq | 24,950 pounds | Pamplona, Spain |
| VW ID. Cross | 26,985 pounds | Pamplona, Spain |
The ID. Cross is a separate model rather than a trim of the ID. Polo, and it is the electric equivalent of the T-Cross: a little taller, a little longer and a crossover shape. The Skoda badges the same batteries as 40 and 55. The Cupra is the one to look at if you want a warm version now, because the Raval tops out at 225PS and you can order it, whereas the ID. Polo GTI cannot yet be ordered in the UK.
Volkswagen has confirmed an ID. Polo GTI with 226PS, 6.8 seconds to 100km/h and up to 268 miles, and opened German pre-sales in October 2026 at 39,995 euros. There is no UK price and no UK order date, and arrival is reported as early 2027. Be careful with the 34,000 pound figure doing the rounds: it was converted from an earlier German estimate and it predates the actual German price, so it is now too low. We will tell you what it costs when Volkswagen does.
What Volkswagen Has Not Confirmed
Worth saying plainly, because a new car attracts a lot of confident reporting.
| Gross battery capacity | Never published. Only the 37 and 52kWh usable figures |
| UK delivery dates | Not published by Volkswagen at all |
| A UK price for the GTI | Not published |
| An end date for the petrol Polo | Not published |
| Why it is in the lower grant band | Not published by Volkswagen or the government |
| Euro NCAP rating | Not tested. No sibling has been tested either |
On waiting times, German dealer reports in September suggested waits of at least ten months against more than 30,000 European orders. That is secondhand, from another market and two months old, so we would not put it forward as a UK figure. What we can do is check the actual build position with the funder for the specification you want, which is a more useful answer than a number from a different country.
The honest drawback of the ID. Polo is not in any of this. It is that you are buying into a car with no crash test result yet, from a platform that is brand new, in a segment where four closely related cars have launched at once. None of that makes it a bad lease. It does mean the thing to check is the funder's pricing rather than the brochure, because that is where four near-identical cars start to differ.
Want to know what an ID. Polo actually costs you a month?
Tell us the battery size and the trim and we will price it across funders, confirm the grant position in writing, and tell you the real build position rather than a figure from another market.
Talk to LetsLeaseFrequently Asked Questions
Yes, and it has been since the summer. Order books opened on 30 July 2026 for the launch editions and 10 September 2026 for the full range, with cars reaching customers from the autumn. Volkswagen UK has a live configurator and published on-the-road prices from 23,945 pounds, so it is a car you can be quoted on today rather than one you register interest in.
Both, which is the interesting bit. It is 21mm shorter than the petrol Polo but 65mm wider, 79mm taller and has a 48mm longer wheelbase. The result is 441 litres of boot against the petrol car's 351, so 90 litres more, and 1,240 litres with the seats folded against 1,125. Volkswagen claims that boot beats a Golf's, and on its own published figures it does.
Not yet, and it has not said when. Volkswagen's own position is that the combustion Polo continues to be offered in parallel and keeps its name, so for now you can choose either. Anything you read giving a specific year for the petrol Polo's death is speculation rather than something Volkswagen has published. Worth knowing the petrol car is now built in South Africa, because European Polo production ended in 2024 to make room for the electric ones.
Up to 203 miles from the 37kWh battery and up to 281 miles from the 52kWh one, on Volkswagen UK's own rounded figures. Be a little careful with older coverage, because Volkswagen's early material quoted about 300km and up to 450km and explicitly described those as forecasts. The homologated numbers are the ones above.
The 52kWh car peaks at 105kW and the 37kWh car at about 90kW, with both doing 10 to 80 percent in roughly 23 to 24 minutes. On alternating current both take 11kW. One thing to watch: Volkswagen's own pre-launch material briefed 130kW for the bigger battery and the final figure is 105kW, so the 130 number is still circulating widely and it is wrong.
37kWh or 52kWh usable. Volkswagen has never published a gross figure, so if you see 38kWh and 56kWh quoted, including on Wikipedia, those are not Volkswagen's numbers and they contradict what Volkswagen does publish. The cells are Volkswagen's own PowerCo unified cell in a cell-to-pack construction.
Yes, and it is the main reason this car matters beyond the badge. There are physical hard keys, a rotary controller for the audio, a bank of physical climate switches below the screen, a physical volume dial and four separate window switches instead of the two-button arrangement Volkswagen had been using. There is also a 10 inch instrument display in front of the driver as standard. Volkswagen has publicly admitted its touch-control era was a mistake and this is the first car to undo it.
Yes, at 1,500 pounds, which is the lower of the two bands rather than the 3,750 many people assume. The retailer applies it to the invoice when you order and it cannot be claimed afterwards. Which battery sizes qualify is genuinely unclear, because Volkswagen's own offers page lists 37kWh trims alongside 52kWh ones while several independent sources say only the 52kWh versions are eligible. Tell us which version you want and we will get it confirmed in writing before you order.
Nobody can tell you, and that is not us dodging the question. The government publishes that vehicles must meet minimum sustainability criteria and does not publish the carbon thresholds or the reasoning for any individual model. Volkswagen states the band but does not explain it. So we can tell you the car gets 1,500 pounds because Volkswagen confirms it, and we cannot tell you why, because the information is not public.
They share a platform and the same two batteries, and all three are on sale. The Raval starts at 23,785 pounds and is the one to look at if you want a warm version now, because it reaches 225PS and the ID. Polo GTI cannot be ordered in the UK yet. The Epiq starts at 24,950 and badges the same batteries as 40 and 55. There is also a VW ID. Cross, which is a separate taller crossover rather than a trim of the ID. Polo.
Not in the UK yet. Volkswagen has confirmed the car with 226PS, 6.8 seconds to 100km/h and up to 268 miles, and opened German pre-sales in October 2026, but there is no UK price and no UK order date, with arrival reported as early 2027. Be careful with the 34,000 pound figure in circulation, because it was converted from an earlier German estimate and predates the real German price, so it is now too low.
LetsLease is a credit broker rather than the lender. We arrange the agreement and place it with a funder such as Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens or Santander, and that funder owns the vehicle and holds the agreement with you. Because we work across several funders rather than one, we can compare how each prices the same car.