IT’ZZ THE VW ID ROOMZZ

How to make a pureelectric schoolrun 4x4 cool? Just add zeds

When is a fully electric, self-driving, futuristic-looking SUV with seven seats not a Tesla Model X? When it’s this! The VW ID Roomzz concept! Look how cool it is, with its not-a-typo zed-tastic name and interior designed to resemble – you guessed it – a lounge.

Yep, there’s a whiff of your dad dancing at a wedding to the ID Roomzz. A slight hint of a politician doing a party-policy rap. It’s VW, one of the biggest, most traditionally play-it-safe carmakers in the world, trying oh-so-very hard to be down with the kidz. We’ll let you be the judge of the results.

What the ID Roomzz previews is, well, the roomiest member of the all-electric ID family that Volkswagen will launch later this year. It’s a seven-seat sev 4x4 with Level 4 autonomous driving ability, a a very digital cabin and rot rotating seats. The idea? When someone’s so not in charge of steering and a pedal pushing, they can do a

180 and join the rest of the passengers for a good old chat, and to drop some dad jokes.

Thanks to 300bhp, the car can get from 0–62mph in a Golf GTI-ish 6.6secs, and go on to 112mph. Not ludicrous pace, but more than quick enough for a seven-seat SUV, no?

Range is estimated to be 279 miles. VW reckons with a 150kW fast-charger, you’d have 80 per cent of battery power on hand after a 30-minute plug-in pit-stop.

Inside it’s all very concepty – we wouldn’t expect a production version, due in 2021, to keep social-spinny chairs or quite so many screens, nor the 22nd-century steering wheel. The air-filtration system, mind you, will be big news in the car’s target market: ultrapolluted urban China. Not coincidentally, the car made its public debut at the recent Shanghai motor show.

Question is, do you think the ID Roomzz is cool, or does it leave you catching some zzzzzs?