Volkswagen ID.3 - long-term review

I had a VW ID.4 a year or two back. Not through choice honestly: it was too bulky for my taste and felt it, and it had the cumbersome early manifestation of the Volkswagen twin screen interface. But early ID.3s had their issues too, notably impoverished-feeling cabin materials and – what was it again? – oh yes that interface.

Well here we are with a Mk1-and-a-bit version of the ID.3. Its facelift is comparatively mild, but inside the plastics have been improved enough to dispel the lingering feeling that someone in Wolfsburg dislikes you. The screen system is better (although not as good as the one on the ID.7.) It runs faster now, it's more configurable and many of its worst solipsisms have been excised. For example you can now see an actual battery percentage in front of you all the time, rather than having to rely on the guess-o-meter to figure out how many miles you've got left.

The ID.3 isn't a pretty car but its sheer forms work better on its smallish coachwork than on the big ID.4. It's roomy inside for something Golf-sized. Four of us will be travelling 500 miles later very soon and we'll all be comfy. Almost straight after, two of us are touring France, so by then it'll be well run in.

I'd like to think I spend much of my life on twisty moorland roads. But I don't. So the ID.3 is a car for the life I have: it's compact in the city and stable and peaceful on motorways. Its suspension is quiet and supple. Engagement isn't the priority, and I like that honesty. Even so, it's more fluent than most family crossovers, petrol or electric.

This particular ID.3 is the first trim after the facelift. It started life at £37,430 then added an exterior pack (matrix headlamps, tinted rear glass) for £1,725, 19in wheels at £1,120, and keyless entry with rear-view camera for £985, plus stuff like mats, a two-level boot floor and bike carrier preparation. Two-tone is another £885. A heat pump is an option not fitted. Yet that's nearly £43k. Gulp. Now though it's replaced by Match trim, where the same thing would be more than £4k less.

I've done just one charge cycle so far. The new software has a much better guess-o-meter. From 100 to 11 per cent was 177 miles for an extrapolated range of 199 miles (177/0.89 is 199) and now I've recharged it tells me I have 198 miles to go. The ID.4 never learned and always indicated a dumb-optimistic range.

This is the small battery ID.3, with 58kWh. I drove those 177 miles in cold weather in a hurry, a significant portion on motorway, and it took more than six hours. I can't go that long between toilet stops and a car that needs topping up as often as its driver needs draining down seems a sensible prospect now that public chargers are closely spaced. The ID.3 is also notably more efficient than the ID.4, which got about 3.4m/kWh against 3.7 for this first cold-weather cycle.