2021 Volkswagen ID.4: E3 – Hoist Review, Front and Rear Suspension
In this episode of Munro Live Sandy conducts a hoist review and has a look under the car examining it’s structure, suspension, as well as brakes and other exposed/visible parts from underneath the vehicle.
First Sandy removes the aeroshields so that he can inspect the underbelly of the car. Sandy remarks that he finds, ” there are cross car beams all over the place,” and is a little surprised at the over engineering displayed here. That being said, perhaps this plays into VW long history of making very safe vehicles, but it seems a bit much to Sandy’s keen eye. Sandy, being the father of the Lean Design methodology, always teaches that part reduction and design simplification is best when creating a product, especially a new vehicle platform.
Moving on to the suspension, Sandy finds a coil spring over a shock absorber with a stabilizer. This would be the general configuration of a more economy-priced vehicle. Sandy points out that this is in contrast to what you would find in a higher end vehicle such as a BMW or what we found on the Tesla cars we have torn down.
Sandy goes on to show of the steering mechanism/box, he explains why European cars all have pass-by shrouds, why the rear wheels have drum brakes, and much more. To get the full Sandy analysis, you have to click below to watch the full episode.
