Volkswagen's ID.4 becomes the ID. Tiguan, a nine-million-car name
Volkswagen hands its electric SUV the name that has sold more than nine million cars
Volkswagen confirms that the facelifted ID.4 will go on sale as the Volkswagen ID. Tiguan. The electric SUV makes its world premiere in early October, days before the Paris Motor Show, and reaches dealers early in 2027. The Tiguan with a combustion engine stays in the range, so Volkswagen showrooms will soon carry two Tiguans side by side. Range, battery and price stay under wraps until the reveal.
The ID. Tiguan replaces the ID.4, and the ID.5 coupé gets no successor
The ID. Tiguan takes over from the ID.4 alone. The ID.5, the coupé-roofed version Volkswagen had already taken out of the range, does not come back as an ID. Tayron or an ID. Touareg either. The name was the worst-kept secret in Wolfsburg: a German trade union had already spoken about it openly, and the registration plates on camouflaged test cars gave it away well before Volkswagen confirmed it.
The Volkswagen Tiguan has sold more than nine million cars since 2007
Since its launch in 2007 the Tiguan has sold more than nine million cars worldwide, and it has been the Volkswagen Group's best-selling model since 2017, ahead of even the Golf. Output peaked at around 911,000 cars in 2019. The name came from a readers' poll in Auto Bild, a merger of tiger and Leguan, the German word for iguana. The electric car now inherits two decades of that recognition.
ID. Polo, ID. Up and now ID. Tiguan: Volkswagen drops the numbers
The ID. Tiguan is the latest step away from the numbered ID. line that began with the ID.3 in 2019. The electric Polo arrived as the ID. Polo and is sold out with a ten-month queue, and the €20,000 city car due in 2027 will be called ID. Up. The ID.3 and ID.7 keep their numbers for now, but the direction is clear: Volkswagen is betting that buyers shop for names they already know.
The ID.4 was built in Zwickau, Emden and Chattanooga until the US line stopped
The ID.4 was the first fully electric crossover from the Volkswagen brand when it debuted in September 2020, and it was named World Car of the Year in 2021. Zwickau has built it from the start and Emden since May 2022. Chattanooga in Tennessee added it for North America in July 2022 and stopped in April 2026, and US dealers are now clearing leftover 2025 cars with discounts of $12,500. Both German plants carry a 2031 end date in a leaked board report.
Volkswagen keeps the ID. Tiguan's range and price back until October
Volkswagen has released no range, battery or price figures for the ID. Tiguan, only dates: the world premiere in early October and deliveries early in 2027. Journalists have already driven camouflaged prototypes, but under embargo. The positioning is the open question, because the new car has to sit between the smaller ID. Cross and the larger ID.7 in a range that has grown crowded in two years.
AutoNext Take
Volkswagen should have given the ID.4 this name in 2020. It was a competent family car with an identity problem: a number that told buyers where it sat in a range rather than what it was, launched a year after the Tiguan had built 911,000 cars in twelve months. Borrowing the group's best-selling name costs nothing, and the ID. Polo, sold out on 30,000 orders, shows that a familiar badge brings buyers into an electric showroom who would never have walked in for a number.
The risk is two Tiguans in one showroom, and it is a risk worth taking. If the name does its work, the ID. Tiguan will register more cars in Europe in 2027, its first full year, than the ID.4 did in 2026, and it will do so on the strength of a facelift rather than a new platform.
