The Spanish version of the VW ID.3 may offer a little more spice to the MEB platform.
As soon as we got these spy pictures of the Seat el-Born, we tried to find a nice video of VW ID.3’s Spanish cousin. Most of them are static, made around the “concept” that was presented at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show and at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. This one from the Battery Life YouTube channel caught our attention because it tries to answer precisely the same question we have: Are the ID.3 and the el-Born the same car?
Gallery: See The New Seat el-Born In Its Final Tests Before Production Starts
15 Photos The video reminded us of an article we had already written about the same thing. Its conclusion was that badge engineering is still a thing with legacy automakers with a lot of brands to handle. The Seat e-Born promises to offer more spice to the MEB platform under a weird name. That extra sauce would come exclusively from the design, but it already shows it will be only slightly different. Power, range, charging time, and other technical specifications tend to be precisely the same. The cars will even be produced at the same factory: Zwickau, in Germany. That said, the main difference between the two will probably be related to price. The Seat may be a little cheaper. It could be sportier, but we are not sure about that. At this point, the similarities may even be harmful to the Spanish EV made in Germany. Is it also facing software problems, like the ID.3? Will it offer only four seats with the 100 kWh battery pack? Will it even have this larger option? All we know is that Seat will sell it with the 62 kWh battery pack – good for 420 km (260 mi) under the WLTP cycle. Volkswagen may decide to answer a few of these questions at the Volkswagen Group Night that precedes the 2020 Geneva Motor Show. The production version of the el-Born will probably be introduced there and we intend to be present to testify that. And make more questions, if possible. Source: Read Full Article
