Image credit: Volkswagen UK press site – Copyright © 2021
Launched in 2019, Volkswagen’s ID.3 is a bold new model aimed at stealing sales from Tesla and Nissan in the growing mid-sized electric family car market.
The 62KwH version I’ve been driving is, in many ways, an excellent poster child for the EV revolution. Its 260 mile range is perfectly acceptable, it’s got plenty of performance and it’s a practical 5 seat family car.
Looks are of course subjective; I’ll simply say that to me it resembles a cross between a morbidly obese Golf and a storm trooper’s helmet and leave it at that. It’s unashamedly modern, possibly even futuristic and is available in a range of gaudy colours so should please a lot of potential EV owners. That continues on to the interior, which gives no credence to nostalgia and has instead gone down the Tesla route of putting almost all controls into a touchscreen. More on that in a moment.
Less subjective is quality – we’ve grown used, over the years, to expecting Volkswagen to provide, if not genuinely better quality than its rivals, then at least the look and feel of it. That’s somewhat lacking in the ID.3, which feels a little on the cheap side with scratchy plastics on the door cards, a flimsy charging flap which only latches if pressed in exactly the right spot and a generally slightly low-rent feel to the interior. It doesn’t feel bad, but compared to rivals from Ford, Toyota and even other cars in the current VW lineup, it’s just a bit disappointing. As a fair and direct comparison, the previous generation Nissan Leaf feels substantially more upmarket and the interior’s a much more welcoming and comfortable prospect.
While we’re on the interior, let’s talk about control – or rather, what control VW permit you to have. Nearly all vehicle functions have been taken away from tactile switches and buttons and put into an iPad-sized touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard, with a smaller non-touch screen in front of the driver displaying essential information. Whether or not you’re a fan of touchscreens in cars – and, in the interests of full disclosure, I am not – the VW system leaves a lot to be desired.
The menus are confusing, the symbols and labels are unclear and the sat nav, as I’ve noticed in a lot of modern VWs, is pretty poor. Several times it’s been abandoned in favour of taking audio directions from Waze on my mobile phone which is wedged in a cupholder. The climate control, hazard lights and a couple of other functions are given dedicated “buttons” below the touchscreen, but those are touch-sensitive too. Unfortunately, they’re not sensitive enough and the lack of responsiveness contributes to a general feeling of frustration when trying to get to grips with the car’s infotainment system. I don’t pretend to understand why this is an improvement over buttons and dials that can be operated by feel alone, as it simply leads to more distractions for the driver.
This extends to the driver aids which – as in most new vehicles – abound. In the ID.3 however, they’re obtrusive, irritating and often downright infuriating.
The hill brake assist is far too keen, the lane assist function twitches the steering constantly and is more or less turned off by default every time I get in the car (alas, it turns itself back on again every time the car is restarted) and parking in tight spaces is made deeply frustrating by the car’s inability to let you make your own decisions. Whilst parking sensors beep at you from all angles, the car also stamps the brakes on, even during slow maneuvers, whenever it gets too nervous.
A simple 3 point turn on a hill in a narrow Cornish village became an infuriating exercise as the car, adopting the persona of a particularly nervous rodent, seemed to develop a fear of allowing anything to come within 2 feet of it and had to be coaxed very gradually through the process.
Parking is a particular bugbear in the ID.3 due to a common issue on modern cars – visibility. The rear window is so small as to be almost useless and the A pillars create gigantic blind spots. On the model I drove, there’s no backup camera which normally wouldn’t be an issue but this car would really benefit from one.
So, we’ve finally managed to get out of the car park; what of its road manners? Well, as with most EVs, the underfloor batteries make for an excellent low centre of gravity, it is of course exceedingly quiet and the seats, while nothing special, are reasonably supportive and comfortable. Out on the open road is where the ID.3 works properly – instant torque from the 62KwH drivetrain provides a 0-60mph time of 7.3 seconds, although the range will suffer if you use that too much.
You can improve your range and trim off some of its performance by choosing a different driving “mode” from the menu system but even in Eco mode it still manages to pick up speed extremely quickly – and of course, almost silently. It grips adequately well, corners superbly due to those batteries in the floor and while the electric power steering is pretty lifeless and devoid of feedback, it’s direct and fairly nimble.
VW have removed the standard “gear lever” which is still found in most EVs and has instead opted for a slightly odd twist control on the righthand end of the instrument cluster. It’s easy enough to get used to but doesn’t fall as easily to hand as the more traditionally placed lever in the centre console. Again, opinions will be divided, but it’s certainly different. The car decides when to shut off, waking up partially when unlocked and coming fully to life when someone sits on the driver’s seat and presses the brake pedal – it then goes back to sleep once it’s parked and the driver gets out. There is an apparent on/off button where a key ignition switch would normally have been, but I’ve not really worked out what it’s for, as it seems slightly superfluous.
The interior offers plenty of space although the boot floor is quite high, compromising load carrying capacity somewhat; it’s certainly as good an option for a family hack as a Golf. The sound system is excellent, there’s plenty of leg and head room and, overall, passengers shouldn’t find much to complain about. The obsession with removing tactile controls has resulted in a bizarre choice to only have one pair of window switches, which can be switched between front and rear operation with a small touch panel in front of them, which is both hard to identify and easy to press accidentally.
It’s trying hard to be modern and different, and in a lot of ways it succeeds. The drivetrain is superb and hard to fault and as a practical daily driver, it has a lot to recommend it. If VW could make the interior a little more appealing and tone down the driver aids, it’d be a winner. As it is, it gets a runner-up prize from this driver.
Pros: Excellent EV drivetrain, performance, range.
Cons: Nannying driver aids, touchscreen controls, iffy quality
In Short: Frustrating but competently efficient. Buy with your head, not your heart.