THE next electric drive generation for the Volkswagen ID. family is now being launched.

With the new APP550 rear-wheel drive, Volkswagen's electric model family will receive a completely newly developed power unit.

In future, this will offer higher performance combined with improved efficiency for the ID. models.

VW says that with the new powertrain the ID. family will benefit both in terms of power and increased range.

Volkswagen is planning to deliver the first vehicles with the new drive generation in a 286ps version from the end of the year.

The design basis for the new drive remains the modular electric drive (MEB) matrix, Volkswagen's vehicle architecture tailored specifically for electric models.

Karsten Bennewitz, VW's head of powertrain and energy systems in development, said: "Because the available space has not changed, we were compelled to develop a new drivethat achieves significant improvements in performance and efficiency in spite of being subject to the same constraints. That was a great challenge for the team of Technical Development and Group Components. The result shows that we were able to reduce the use of raw materials, while at the same time achieving a considerable increase in vehicle efficiency."

The new powertrain has a maximum torque of around 550 Nm - depending on the vehicle's gear ratio.

In order to increase the efficiency of the electric drive, Volkswagen has optimised a number of components in the powertrain, including the thermal management system.

The new drive has an energy-saving cooling system that operates without an electrically driven oil pump and the system is able to independently cool itself via the gear wheels of the gearbox and specially formed components for oil supply and distribution.

The drive system with gearbox, rotor and stator will be produced at the Volkswagen Group Components plant in Kassel, Germany.