New ID Polo Rights Volkswagen's Interior Design Wrongs With Lots Of Analog Controls, Interesting Materials And Configurable Retro Graphics

Volkswagen knows it has really been messing over the past few years, with the problems certainly starting before Dieselgate but obviously ramping up after that. The lineup of ID electric vehicles that were created to atone for the Dieselgate sins haven't been as successful or well-received as VW surely hoped, but some of the biggest issues with those EVs are spread across the whole Volkswagen lineup. There's three big ones: Bad infotainment systems, too much of a reliance on touch controls instead of analog ones, and boring designs with low-rate materials.

Those three problems are being directly addressed with the new ID Polo hatchback, an EV that was originally developed as the ID 2 before VW realized its naming scheme was bad, too. Volkswagen says the ID Polo's "holistic design approach [was] shaped especially by customer feedback." That's certainly a good start. But man, the ID Polo's interior really does look excellent. There's lots of new analog controls, interesting material and design choices, and a (seemingly) much better infotainment system with toggleable retro graphics. 

Let's start with the steering wheel, the part of the car you interact with the most. Volkswagen has already begun replacing its bad touch-capacitive steering wheel controls with physical ones on new models like the facelifted GTI, using seemingly the same exact units as on older cars. But the ID Polo's two-spoke wheel has a newly designed squircle filled with buttons on each spoke, which control things like the adaptive cruise control, media track and volume, and the gauge cluster. The windshield wiper stalk is new, with a clearer design and layout, and the gear selector stalk is also simpler than what other ID EVs have used.

Volkswagen

Then we got the row of switches in the dashboard running along the bottom edge of the air vents that sit below the central touchscreen. These adjust major climate control settings like temperature, fan speed, whether A/C is on, air recirculation, the auto mode, and the front and rear defrosters. No more touch sliders here. For all other climate stuff you'll still have to use the touchscreen, but it's not so bad — an always-there bar at the bottom of the screen has easy shortcuts. Ahead of the cupholders in the center console is a volume knob that can also skip tracks.

One thing most people really hate about the ID cars are the window switches, using two switches and a button to switch between controlling the front or rear windows. In the ID Polo there are four separate window switches, plus actual buttons for the door locks and a better mirror-adjustment knob. The door handle is a cool pull toggle with a knurled metal end cap, a finish also found on the dashboard switches. 

The freestanding central touchscreen measures 13 inches while the gauge cluster screen is 10.25 inches, both suitable for a car of the ID Polo's size. The layout of the infotainment is similar to what Volkswagen (and many others) currently offers, with a homepage made up of large customizable widgets and plenty of shortcuts for functions and submenus. Anything will be a big upgrade from VW's current system, but it really does seem like a noteworthy step up. More importantly, though, is the feature toggleable from a simple shortcut on the screen, what Volkswagen's design team called the "secret sauce" in development.

Hitting that button transforms the graphics from the new Volkswagen style into a design that mimics the original first-generation Golf of the 1980s, and it's a totally holistic overhaul. Beyond just the look of the main speedometer and power meter, the odometer looks like a classic mechanical unit, and the readouts for the clock, temperature, range and other stats have an LCD style. The center screen also gets a retro look, with skeuomorphic buttons, more retro readouts and a music player that looks like a cassette tape.

While the overall interior design is largely similar to other recent Volkswagens, the automaker has made big strides when it comes to materials and details — VW says it "has long delivered quality and comfort standards in the small and compact car classes that are aligned with a higher vehicle class," and that's continuing with the new Polo. A nice gray fabric covers more of the dashboard and door panels, and there's a black woven material on the upper dash. The air vents have the same metal finish as the dashboard switches, and the trim surround spanning the dash combines metal with a spackle-look material similar to what Volvo has in the EX30. There is a unique T-shaped stitching pattern throughout, plus little metal Volkswagen badges as end caps. Active ambient lighting wraps around the cabin.

Volkswagen

The ID Polo won't be fully revealed until later this year, and it almost certainly won't be sold in the U.S., though maybe we'll get its ID Cross sibling. Regardless, this new interior design ethos should spread across the Volkswagen lineup, and we'll be waiting with bated breath. Hopefully an interior overhaul (along with other upgrades) could bring the ID Buzz back to our shores.