Here’s What a Volkswagen ID.4 Electric Motor Is All About

Munro Live has got us falling into the rabbit hole so many times with its YouTube videos offering valuable insights on anything automotive-related. This time, Sandy tears down an ID.4 electric motor, showing us the modular design strategy used by Volkswagen for its cars.

Munro explains in his Munro Live clip how the Volkswagen motor is different from other designs, including Tesla’s, which is taken as a reference multiple times throughout the video. Unlike VW, Tesla puts the motor mounts right inside the casting, but there are so many other particularities that make the German brand different from other carmakers.

From the gearbox to the inverter, magnets, and so on, Munro analyzes every aspect of the electric motor, from the Hairpin technology used in the ID.4 to the bleed resistor, its capacitor, and everything else. It’s an unforgiving half an hour for VW, as Mr. Munro promises right from the start to be unbiased and relentless.

The conclusion of the expert? With a couple of exceptions, such as the large number of threaded fasteners, Munro likes what he sees. The ID.4 is a good example of how motors should be designed.

The Munro Live team recently performed another “carectomy” on the ID.4 disassembling the battery pack on a 2021 model. It is the battery component in electric vehicles nowadays what fuels competition among car makers, as they are all trying to come up with better charging times, higher range, and so on.

Munro did come with some downsides of the ID.4 battery, such as its weight and the overall manufacturing costs associated with it, but what we took away from that clip was that VW managed to build a high-quality battery pack, cleverly engineered and using quality materials.