IIHS Releases the Initial Batch of 2026 Top Safety Pick Winners
Several vehicles earned the IIHS' top award, but no minivans have made the cut so far this year.
Volkswagen offers a wide variety of electric vehicles in other markets, but that’s not the case here. The retro-throwback ID. Buzz van is on hiatus for 2026, and the automaker recently confirmed that the ID.4 crossover will also take a break. VW said it would stop ID.4 production at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, factory in mid-April, but the pause might not be permanent.
Halting ID.4 production gives VW more capacity to build the redesigned 2027 Atlas SUV at the facility, but the break will likely be temporary. The automaker said that “a future version of ID.4 is currently planned for the North American market,” so we’ll probably see the overhauled EV at some point in the next few years.
While it offered decent specs and wasn’t priced outrageously, the ID.4 has some glaring issues that need to be addressed. It doesn’t have the best driving range or fastest charging speeds, and it has drawn consistent criticism for its touch-based controls, such as the window switches and steering wheel interface. VW has also seen middling sales numbers, moving just 22,000 ID.4s in 2025.
The Atlas is a much stronger seller for the automaker, with more than 71,000 units sold last year. It’s also far more closely aligned with American car-buying habits. Three-row SUVs are extremely popular here, and VW could carve out a larger footprint in the segment as the heavy-hitting Highlander goes all-electric, a big risk for Toyota.
In the meantime, there are plenty of 2025 and 2026 ID.4s still sitting on dealers’ lots, and production won’t end for at least another week or so, meaning there will be more new inventory being shipped for a while. The federal EV tax credit is no longer offered, but it’s often possible to find great deals on VW’s EV, especially on models that have been sitting for a while.
