Safety shot
FOR Comfortable, nimble, plenty of space, lots of IDs incoming AGAINST Trying to avoid scaring anyone makes it a bit forgettable
Volkswagen needs the ID.3 to sell in vast numbers, not simply virtue signal from the corner of the showroom. The born-again post-Dieselgate company makes no secret of the fact it considers the ID.3 its next definitive people’s car, after the Beetle and the Golf. And to please most people most of the time, the ID.3 is deliberately not an oddball. Digest its slabby-yet-slippery silhouette, get your head around the chunky drive selector, and the ID.3 has few surprises left up its sleeve.
As a result, there’s little going on here that’ll alarm or confuse the traditional Golf customer.
It’s just a five-door, five-seat hatch, with a boot at the back and a motor beneath driving the rear wheels. The steering wheel and infotainment screen are straight from the latest Golf MkVIII, so the cabin isn’t exciting nor especially user friendly, tech-wise. The best bit is the rhomboid gear selector cribbed from the BMW i3.
The overhangs are short and the wheelbase elongated, because the front doesn’t have to accommodate a hefty engine and cooling system. This is good news for packaging the battery, with seating in cinema-style tiers, and ample room front and rear, if not the Passatsized chasm VW claims. The drag factor is a svelte 0.27Cd, even though it’s a tall machine with door mirrors, not new-fangled cameras. So you have a car that’s compact in the city for parking, but roomy enough on family trips.
Because the ID.3 is based on a bespoke EV platform (codenamed MEB – you’ll be hearing a lot more about cars spun off it in the coming years, so worth remembering), VW can be agile about different battery sizes, offering from 200 to 340 miles of range.
So far we’ve only driven the ID.3 in Germany, which is more flattering to a car with 20-inch rims and a 1,700kg kerbweight than our shoddy British surfaces. There’s little to suggest the ID.3 is anything other than comfortable. Crucially for an EV, the low speed ride over speed humps and drain covers is damped just so.
It’s never ‘watch this, kids’ quick, but nippier than your Golf TSI. You do get some driving modes, with subtle differences between Eco, Comfort and Sport. In Comfort the steering is lightly weighted but sharp enough, and you’ll marvel at the balletic turning circle that gets the ID.3 facing back the way it came before a Golf driver can select reverse. All thanks to the RWD layout allowing more steering angle up front.
Which is the ID.3 all over, really. Never trying too hard, just doing the same job as a Golf a bit more cleverly, without tickling your innovation pickle much. Prices will span £29k–£39k, to match well-specced you-know-whats.
That’s not to say the ID.3 isn’t clever. It’s space efficient, nimble and tech-wise, it’s on the ball. The engineering might behind the car is arguably more impressive, tooling up for huge production volumes, a trim level for everyone, and soon, an ID model for everyone too. Even the factory is carbon neutral.
On first impression, the ID.3 fills the EV family hatch chasm between the bravely brilliant i3 and disappointingly unambitious Nissan Leaf. After all, regular Golfs have never been thrillers packed with derring-do, but the yardstick against which pretenders are judged.