Volkswagen will only give its ID electric cars classic model names if they fit the characters of the originals, according to boss Thomas Schäfer – explaining why the heavily updated ID 3, due next year, won’t be badged a Golf.

The firm is working on heavy updates for both the ID 3 and ID 4, with both EVs moving onto the upgraded 'MEB Plus' platform. But while Autocar understands the ID 4 is already being referred to internally at Wolfsburg as the ID Tiguan, the ID 3 will not adopt the ID Golf name, even though the Golf is its closest equivalent in Volkswagen's ICE line-up.

Still, Schäfer said "don't underestimate the changes" being made to the ID 3. Speaking at the Munich motor show, he added: "It's a fantastic car to drive, and we've got phenomenal feedback on that. The changes are in the interior: the criticism was usually around the first version, with the hard plastic finish and so on.

"That has been fixed already with a good first-step facelift, but now it's going to get a whole new [interior]. Then the exterior is a phenomenal package.

"It wouldn't be necessary to make a whole new car. You will see how that car will change when you see this amazing car."

With the new ID Polo and ID Cross, Volkswagen will return to using classic model names, and Schäfer promised that "we're going to roll this out whenever there's a new model or a major product change; it's going to be names from here on".

However, he added that the application of those names would depend on the models: "When you have this side by side [ICE and EV line-ups] that we have at the moment in the transitional phase, you have to have clarity in your portfolio, clarity in the model lines and familiar topics like the GTI – and the name has to be true to the DNA of that product. 

"From my point of view, it's the biggest mistake to call something something that it's not. There's some examples in the industry at the moment that you look at and say 'okay, well, I don't know why you call it that, because it's not that'.

"For us, the ID Polo now, it's a true Polo in proportions, looks, feel, drivability, and it deserves the name.

"As we go forward, if the name doesn't fit, we don't call it that. We'll give it some other name. We have enough names in the portfolio, old and new."