The race for second is hotting up
These are ground-breaking cars, made even more fascinating now the stopwatch is counting down to end the combustion engine’s days. The ID.3 bears hefty baggage, spearheading VW’s zero-emissions push to draw a line under Dieselgate, and the ambition to deliver an all-electric people’s car to rank alongside the Beetle and Golf.
‘People’s car’ is spot-on. The ID.3 is a five-door hatch which focuses on human necessities such as spaciousness (mostly), civility and comfort (mostly). With a range starting at £29,990 it’s also the most attainable, some £7500 less than the cheapest Model 3 and £16k below the Polestar. The ID.3 is pleasant to drive, with the punch of a middleweight boxer, accurate, easygoing steering and ample cornering grip, though few rear-drive frolics.
Maybe it’s the weight of expectation, but there’s something underwhelming about the ID.3, and not just in the low-rent plastics to trade-off the expensive hardware, or the lumbering infotainment. Think of the ID.3 as a cute alternative to the Nissan Leaf, with rational strengths to lure more punters into the electric mainstream.
Car enthusiasts want more than pleasing; they want passion. With its beefy proportions, the Polestar 2 is nice to be seen in, and the imaginative fabrics and finishes (claw-marked trim!) make it the nicest to be in, too. The Google-powered infotainment handles Englishlanguage inputs adroitly, whereas the VW labours as if your navigation instructions are in its second language.
The Polestar’s strong performance sits squarely in this test’s middle ground, with more of that head-jarring thrust so intrinsic to EVs. The steering is more delicate and vivid, but the superior dynamics do impact the cruising refinement and ride comfort. Efficiency and charge time are not its strongest suits either.
With its first-mover advantage, Tesla knows how to pamper batteries to extract XL range in the lesser models and XXXL performance from the £56k flagship. It lags the legacy car makers on quality, and the minimalist cabin can’t match the Polestar for surprise and delight, save for a screen big enough to monitor America’s airspace.
But with performance to match a Porsche Taycan, alert steering and a sorted chassis, the Model 3 is in a league of its own. Even a couple of years of familiarity have not blunted its appeal. The baby Tesla was the breakthrough EV. Its newer rivals remain pretenders to the throne.