Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer is a looker
It's no secret that most North American shoppers have permanently relegated station wagons to the dustbin of history, trading their spacious interiors and low centre of gravity for SUVs with chunky tires and off-road pretensions. With a Cherokee Trailhawk in his driveway, this writer cannot throw shade since he is contributing to the trend.
But they know better in Europe, leading brands continue offering longroof variants of their wares, generally referred to as “estate” or “variant” models riding on platforms shared with sedans.
In this era of electrification, this strategy is now extending to EVs — and Volkswagen has just introduced a helluva looker.
Called the ID.7 Tourer, it builds on the ID.7 fastback by adding a longer roofline that transitions very elegantly to the rear hatch area of this — call it what it is — station wagon. In addition to adding a dose of extra style, VW says the extra height in its cargo quarters gives the ID.7 Tourer over 600 litres (21.2 cubic feet) of space for gear or about 1,700 L (60.0 cu. ft) when the rear seats are folded away.
The model is suggested to return 685 kilometres of range using the eternally optimistic WLTP measures as a yardstick.
Built on the MEB platform, Volkswagen is boasting 282 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque from a single motor for the regular ID.7, so it is not unreasonable to expect near-equal figures for the Tourer. That electric motor is mounted on the rear axle, though a more powerful all-wheel-drive model is expected later in the car's life cycle.
Speaking of battery size, VW is talking about an 82.0-kWh battery pack and making no mention of the smaller 77.0-kWh unit spoken of for other markets.
This is wise.
Knowing there is an infinitesimal chance this long-roofed beauty will appear on our shores, Driving reached out to our gregarious contact at VW Canada who is possibly the world's only German with a good sense of humour and can be relied upon to provide amusing but insightful commentary. He reconfirmed the standard ID.7 will arrive in Canada later this year in the waning days of late summer but also that the Touring version shown here is “under consideration.”
Across the pond, European presales for the ID.7 Touring are scheduled to start in the first quarter of this year.