VOLKSWAGEN ID 3
Battery reveals itself as a fair-weather fan and keyless entry system isn’t keyed in
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT
To see if this family EV has the versatility to be Volkswagen’s new people’s car
In my experience, running an electric car becomes a lot easier if it can cover at least 200 real-world miles between charges. That sort of range means I can pretty much go where I like whenever I like. And that’s what my Volkswagen ID 3 was giving me in the early days, happily dispatching around 220 miles before needing a top-up. But now, with the weather having turned colder, its efficiency has dropped from 3.8 miles per kwh hour to barely 3.0, reducing the indicated range to around 190 miles and the actual distance I can cover between charges to 175 miles at best.
To be fair, most EVS suffer a similar drop-off in battery performance in cold weather, so it’s no surprise. And this doesn’t mean I can no longer do some of the drives I would usually do. A 175-mile range is still respectable in comparison to what most other small EVS can manage in the same conditions. But that earlier sense of freedom has been diminished a bit, over the winter months at least.
When I’m charging it at home, the ID 3 doesn’t always want to start the process straight away. On one occasion recently, having arrived home with the battery almost flat and wanting to replenish it without delay, I spent what seemed like an eternity repeatedly attaching and detaching the cable, locking and unlocking the car, cursing under my breath and even rebooting my wallbox (just in case) before the car decided it was ready. I got the distinct impression that it wasn’t through any of my efforts that the green charging light eventually came on. Thankfully, such delays don’t happen all that often.
A more consistent problem was that the keyless entry (standard on Family trim) wasn’t working when my ID 3 first arrived. It’s worth mentioning that it wasn’t new then, but it was still in as-new condition.
With the appropriate settings turned on within the depths of the touchscreen, the doors were meant to unlock as I approached with the key or, alternatively, touched the handle. But none of that was happening.
I could have continued locking and unlocking by manually plipping the key (oh, the hardship), but keyless entry is a feature that I find very handy, so I was keen to get it sorted.
A couple of days in a Volkswagen workshop ascertained that the car had lost communication with the spare key and this was limiting the keyless entry function, even though I had been using the other key. The solution was to recode both. With that done, the keyless entry is now functioning normally.