CAR (UK)

Giant test: ID.4 vs Mach-E vs Niro vs XC40

All of a sudden EVs are normal, with Ford and VW bringing electric crossovers to the mainstream. Are they good enough to replace the nation’s favourite cars?

- Words Chris Chilton Photograph­y Alex Tapley

VW and Ford electric crossovers tackle Kia and Volvo rivals as the EV goes mainstream. How do they fare in the real world?

If you feel like you’re struggling to keep up with the electric revolution taking place in the car market, you’re not alone. Even when you think you’ve finally got your head round the charging times and charging types, something seismic can happen that moves the goalposts into the next stadium. Case in point: between us driving the cars in this test and sitting down to tell you about it, the British government completely upended the entire sector by reducing the £3000 electric car grant to £2500, and slashing the price cap on eligible cars from £50,000 to £35,000. When we took these photograph­s, three of the cars qualified for a subsidy. As it stands now, only one does, giving a surprise advantage to the cheapest car in the test, while the car that looked conspicuou­sly expensive before is suddenly back in the running.

The car back in the game is the Volvo XC40 Recharge P8. It’s Volvo’s first electric car, though it shares its guts with sister company Polestar’s 2 saloon. It was looking conspicuou­sly expensive because Volvo chose to launch it, as is the current fashion, in full-on Carlos Fandango spec with loads of interior kit, two motors, four-wheel drive, and enough performanc­e to see off all but the hottest of hot hatches from the lights.

More affordable, less extreme versions are on the way, but it’ll be a year until we’re able to buy the single-motor version that’ll probably be enough for most needs, and far more attainable than the sole £53,155 Recharge First Edition model you can buy right now.

Costing £31,975 after the government grant, and now the only car in the test still eligible for it, is the recently facelifted Hyundai Kona. In fact, the cheapest Kona Electric is even cheaper than that. An entry-level Kona SE starts at £30,625, but we pushed the boat out for the mid-spec Premium, knowing that it would still look like a value propositio­n. The caveat is that we’re stuck with the smaller of the Kona’s two battery options. Upgrade to the bigger one and you’ll pay more, and more again because you bust the £35k grant cap.

As do the other two cars here. The ID.4 is the second of Volkswagen’s ID electric car family, big brother to the ID.3, and the company’s first e-SUV. It rides on a stretched version of the ID.3’s MEB platform and, like the Volvo, arrives only in a fancy launch spec. But the ID.4 1st Edition is still substantia­lly cheaper than the Volvo, at £40,110 (it was effectivel­y £37k until it lost the government’s patronage).

That puts the ID.4 head-to-head with the £40,350 Ford Mustang Mach-E, a car so contentiou­s it finally gives the awful gas-crisis-era Mustang II from 1974 a break from the endless criticism of it being the least Mustang-like Mustang ever. Who cares if it’s not a ‘real’ Mustang, anyway? Probably not many in Britain, whose only connection to the badge is derived from a rose-tinted Hollywood-curated alternate reality that convenient­ly obscures the fact that most of the old ones were pretty rubbish. So take the Mustang for what it is, not what it says it is: a fun, fairly affordable electric family car with a familiar name.

There are plenty of ‘proper’ Mustang styling cues, of course. You get the segmented tail lights, the menacingly slim headlights, a bonnet with simulated twin bulges mimicking the presence of a V8 underneath, and a galloping pony emblem on a grille that’s blocked off save for an upper outline that makes it look like the handle cut-out on a document crate. It doesn’t hit you over the head with the retro shtick. Strip away the details and it’s not that different from a convention­al Ford SUV such as the Kuga. Until, that is, you open the door by pushing the weird eyeball on the B-pillar to pop it ajar, then tug it wide by pulling on a strange wing tab that looks like the cigarette holder above a ’70s public urinal. ⊲

Take the Mustang for what it is, not what it says it is: a fun, fairly a ordable electric family car

Do that and the first thing you see is a vast touchscree­n. The inside of the Mach-E is unlike the interior of any Mustang, or any Ford for that matter. Instead of convention­al gauges, you get a letterbox-shaped digital instrument panel, and where most Fords combine a traditiona­l bank of console buttons augmented by a touchscree­n perched on top of the dash, in the Mach-E’s case it’s all screen. It certainly delivers the wow factor, and unlike older versions of Ford’s Sync infotainme­nt system it’s fast and looks good. But it’s positioned oddly, feeling too vertical and not directed su ciently towards the driver, as if the most important likely user was a toddler wedged into the storage cubby between the seats. Given that almost every function is operated through the screen, fitting it to the dash with some kind of universal joint allowing it to be tilted towards the driver’s seat for the many times you’re riding solo would be handy.

But you do get three major concession­s to old-fashioned reach-out-and-grab-it practicali­ty in the Mach-E. The starter button, the rotary volume control and the old Jag-style rotary gear selector are useful physical tools to make sure Ford buyers don’t feel like they’ve fallen asleep watching the snooker and woken up in 2075. And if the rear seat space and 402-litre boot (plus an 81-litre cubby in the nose) aren’t quite Mondeo-big, they’re usefully more in each case than a Ford Focus can offer, meaning most families will find it plenty big enough.

If it’s familiarit­y you want, the XC40 and Kona are the cars for you. Unlike the ID.4 and Mustang, which were designed from the ground up as electric cars, the Recharge and Kona Electric are simply electric versions of cars otherwise available with convention­al petrol or hybrid powertrain­s.

In fact, it takes a fairly keen eye to spot that either is an EV at all, until you see the blanked grille on the nose, which is now smoother and even more distinctiv­e on post-facelift Kona EVs. But not everyone wants to drive a motorised billboard for EV ownership, and besides, the XC40 is unarguably a fantastic bit of industrial design whatever’s under the bonnet.

It’s the same story inside, where the Volvo looks little different to any other XC40. The cabin quality is solid, there’s more room than the fairly compact footprint suggests, and the dashboard makes up for its slighty dated, recessed touchscree­n by fitting it with Google-developed software that means the voice-activated assistant has a hope of understand­ing your commands.

Hyundai’s mild tweaks to the Kona’s cabin include a 10.25-inch digital instrument display, but they can’t stop the cabin looking a little downmarket. There’s too much shiny grey plastic, and too many useful hard buttons to win over anybody seduced by the less practical, but more visually impressive, touchscree­n of the Mustang.

The Kona’s big central tunnel – the sort of thing you get in front-engined GT cars – suddenly seems quaintly old-fashioned beside bespoke electric cars that celebrate their ability to provide an entirely flat floor. It also magnifies the snug feeling of the Kona’s fairly small cabin.

Very definitely wearing its electric heart on its sleeve is the ID.4, which is sleek, slightly androgynou­s, and not very well put together in places. While opinion among the CAR team evenly split on the merits of the ID.4’s exterior styling, we were mostly in agreement that it feels far less premium than it looks. From the way the battery charging flap opens and closes to the design and fit of the exterior door handles, from the hard feel of the door panel plastics to the sound of the electric windows, it feels slightly disappoint­ing. ⊲

The Mustang Mach-E’s usefully bigger than a Ford Focus, meaning most families will find it plenty big enough

And if you’ve been to the Ford dealer first, you’ll also be disappoint­ed by the size of the VW’s touchscree­n. It’s a bit of stretch, and when your hand eventually gets there it discovers that the touch-sensitive slider controls for the climate control are as unpleasant to use as the buttons on the steering wheel, whose haptic feedback appears to be modelled on the world’s weediest electric fence. At least our car doesn’t have the hospital-white steering wheel.

If it sounds like we’re giving the ID.4 a good kicking, allow us to offer it a hand up from the floor by saying that in other respects this is a great interior. It’s clean, uncluttere­d and hugely relaxing because it abandons the usual SUV pretence at sportiness, favouring a low scuttle and deep windscreen, presenting an incredible view of the road ahead and giving the cabin a real sense of space.

That sense is not entirely a stylist’s trick. This is a roomy car, the roomiest here, with plenty of space spread across the two rows for four to sit comfortabl­y on long journeys, while the flat floor means life wouldn’t be intolerabl­e for a fifth, either. The ID.4 also has the biggest boot, a 543-litre loadbay, plus a little cubby below the floor that will be needed for storing your charging cable. You can’t put it in the front boot because the ID.4 doesn’t have one. While future ID.4s will get a second motor mounted up front, lift this one’s bonnet and all you’ll find is some heating gubbins and the electric power steering hardware. The motor is at the back, driving the rear wheels.

Along with the faster, four-wheel-drive variants, Volkswagen is also gearing up to launch less powerful ID.4s that come with a smaller battery and resulting smaller price – something that’s probably a whole lot more pressing since the grant changes.

But we’re not sure we’d want an ID.4 much slower than this one. If at first glance the single motor’s 201bhp doesn’t seem so terrible, you’re probably still thinking in petrol mode. Like all electric cars the ID.4 is heavier than a same-sized petrol machine; in this case it’s a pretty colossal 2124kg. It’s not that it feels slow exactly. Zero to 62mph takes 8.5sec, and the modest 229lb ft of torque is enough for most normal driving, while the excellent throttle mapping means the right pedal isn’t over-sharp, as on some electric cars. But there’s no evidence of the EV pep you’re probably expecting, and if you regularly drive with a full complement of people and their stuff you’ll want more go.

The XC40 certainly delivers on the go front. Packing a monstrous 402bhp and even crazier 487lb ft from its two motors, plus four-wheel drive to get the lot of it to the road, the Volvo erupts from a standing start, reaching 62mph in 4.9sec. Okay, so the same money buys a Tesla Model 3 that’s much faster, but this is still more performanc­e than anyone will need from a car like this, particular­ly since it’s not actually that much fun to punt about.

Yes, it’s unflappabl­y secure, corners flatly and can be made to go very quickly down any kind of road, but you never feel connected to the XC40 through the numb ⊲

The ID.4’s interior is clean, uncluttere­d and hugely relaxing because it abandons the usual SUV pretence at sportiness

steering or inclined to really wind it up and unleash all of that power. And when you do, you’ll be wishing for some chunkier seat bolsters. The seats are like Victorian parents: supportive in principle, but never there with a hug when you really need one.

What really does grab you, though, is the Volvo’s selectable one-pedal function, which applies so much regenerati­ve braking effect you’ll feel like you’ve left the handbrake on when you try to manoeuvre out of your parking spot. Some will love it, and find it preferable to the ID.4’s set-up, which – even with its ‘B’ for ‘braking’ mode selected – offers very little, because VW thinks coasting is more eƒcient. But it seems a little overdone.

Hyundai, meanwhile, offers multiple regenerati­ve settings on the Kona, accessible by paddles behind the steering wheel, meaning it’s not hard to find a character you like. Getting to 62mph requires closer to 10sec, though the hefty 291lb ft of torque means it doesn’t feel much less potent than the supposedly quicker ID.4 in most situations, and should be ample if you stick to urban areas. The smaller battery also reduces driving range from 300 miles to less than 200.

When it comes to the Mustang, however, we’d argue that you don’t need more than our standard-range, rearwheel-drive car. Yes, the 5.8sec to 62mph and 335-mile range of the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version with the bigger 99kWh battery sounds tempting, but we imagine most buyers will be happy to make do with 6.9sec.

We certainly were. The Mustang feels energetic and up for it in a way the ID.4 never is. True, the Volkswagen rides better, and its impeccable mechanical refinement amplified our disappoint­ment in the Mustang’s pullaway shunt. But the Mustang makes the effort to involve you in the process of driving in the way the other cars here never do. Leave the anodyne Whisper mode with its mushy throttle and steering map alone, and stick to Active or the cringy Untamed, and the Mustang feels pleasantly alert, responding to inputs with an immediacy better matched to the kind of taut body control we’ve grown to expect after almost 30 years of dynamicall­y excellent front-wheel-drive Fords.

Except, of course, the Mach-E isn’t front-wheel drive. Give the right pedal a tickle on the exit of a roundabout and you can easily coax it into a cheeky oversteer slide the ID.4 wouldn’t dream of letting you get away with. You know, maybe the Mustang connection isn’t all marketing make-believe. And if the prospect of the base ’Stang’s 273-mile range is giving you anxiety, pairing the bigger battery with the rear-drive hardware results in a lowstress 379 miles between digital fills, which you can do for free for five years using the Ionity network. In all these cars, our tests showed that your driving style and choice of route will have a measurable effect on the range.

The ID.4’s no-choice 77kWh battery gives it a 310-mile WLTP range, compared with 249 for the Volvo and 190 for the Kona, though our testing suggests a real range of around 75 per cent of each of those figures, which doesn’t look good for the Volvo. The XC counters by offering 150kW charging capability, compared to 125kW for the ID.4 and 115kW for the Mach-E, though in practice you’ll be stood in the Moto Services car park for around 35 minutes to fill each of them, except the Hyundai, whose 50kW max charging rate means a 50-minute wait. ⊲

You never feel connected to the XC40 or inclined to unleash all that power

 ??  ?? THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? It’s a lovely cabin, however you power your XC40
It’s a lovely cabin, however you power your XC40
 ??  ?? ID’s VW logo is new, while the Mustang bins all Ford badges. But both trade on familiarit­y
ID’s VW logo is new, while the Mustang bins all Ford badges. But both trade on familiarit­y
 ??  ?? More style, more power – but also £20k more to pay for the Volvo
More style, more power – but also £20k more to pay for the Volvo
 ??  ?? A 10-inch touchscree­n now seems small; pedal icons among many neat ID details
A 10-inch touchscree­n now seems small; pedal icons among many neat ID details
 ??  ?? Like the Cayenne Coupe’s, roof isn’t as sharply raked as it might look
Like the Cayenne Coupe’s, roof isn’t as sharply raked as it might look
 ??  ?? Ford declares war on door handles with its B-pillar keypad
Ford declares war on door handles with its B-pillar keypad
 ??  ?? The Kona’s modest handling means our test car’s 39kWh battery (182bhp, a 9.9sec 0-62mph and 96mph) makes more sense than the 64kWh version (274bhp, two seconds o the sprint, an extra 8mph). The Kona is so utterly not a performanc­e car that the upgrade doesn’t feel like money well spent. The real benefit of the bigger battery is the range: an extra 111 miles, which is a comfort as you drive along monitoring the battery percentage and range data on the central screen. So the optimal Kona would be one that doesn’t exist: the bigger battery, but set-up for range rather than to work with an e-motor tuned for unusable performanc­e.
The Kona’s modest handling means our test car’s 39kWh battery (182bhp, a 9.9sec 0-62mph and 96mph) makes more sense than the 64kWh version (274bhp, two seconds o the sprint, an extra 8mph). The Kona is so utterly not a performanc­e car that the upgrade doesn’t feel like money well spent. The real benefit of the bigger battery is the range: an extra 111 miles, which is a comfort as you drive along monitoring the battery percentage and range data on the central screen. So the optimal Kona would be one that doesn’t exist: the bigger battery, but set-up for range rather than to work with an e-motor tuned for unusable performanc­e.
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Smart, modern, and very much at home in a multi-storey
Smart, modern, and very much at home in a multi-storey
 ??  ?? SECOND OPINION TIM POLLARD The ID.4 is proof positive that Volkswagen’s electric revolution is delivering. VW is cranking out every which flavour of electric car on its MEB e-platform and it surely won’t be long before they run out of ID numbers. It’s all very Germanic and logical: this 4 is a 3 stretched into the popular SUV segment – and although there’s little fun here, especially compared with the Mustang, when it works this well, who cares? The ID.4 rides beautifull­y and majors on comfort, it’s vast inside and will plug straight into family life. What it lacks of the Ford’s shock-and-awe, it makes up for with practical touches. Isn’t that what everyday motoring’s all about?
SECOND OPINION TIM POLLARD The ID.4 is proof positive that Volkswagen’s electric revolution is delivering. VW is cranking out every which flavour of electric car on its MEB e-platform and it surely won’t be long before they run out of ID numbers. It’s all very Germanic and logical: this 4 is a 3 stretched into the popular SUV segment – and although there’s little fun here, especially compared with the Mustang, when it works this well, who cares? The ID.4 rides beautifull­y and majors on comfort, it’s vast inside and will plug straight into family life. What it lacks of the Ford’s shock-and-awe, it makes up for with practical touches. Isn’t that what everyday motoring’s all about?
 ??  ?? Smallest car here is also the cheapest
Smallest car here is also the cheapest
 ??  ?? Interior rule book not tampered with. Good
Interior rule book not tampered with. Good
 ??  ?? Remember when cars used to have grilles?
Remember when cars used to have grilles?
 ??  ?? Other Konas have an engine under the bonnet
Other Konas have an engine under the bonnet
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Don’t mistake it for a home cinema: Mach-E’s the one that wants to be driven
Don’t mistake it for a home cinema: Mach-E’s the one that wants to be driven
 ??  ?? Cross a Model 3 with a Leaf, throw in some SUV, mix well
Cross a Model 3 with a Leaf, throw in some SUV, mix well

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