We drove the Volkswagen ID.3 until it DIED!

hey check this out it's the new volkswagen id3 really important electric car now in this video i'm going to be driving it here from volkswagen's headquarters in milton keynes all the way up the motorway until it runs out of charge because i want to see how far it can actually go on a full battery what exactly happens when it does run out of charge does it just conk out leave you stranded i'm going to find out though a man from volkswagen over there isn't too happy that i'm doing this test but in the interest of motoring journalism i'm going to do it anyway and of course along the way i'm going to give the car a thorough reviewing to let you know if it's any good buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison site this is a big moment driving the new volkswagen id3 for the first time the car's battery has 94 charge it's a 58 kilowatt hour battery and the full range if it's fully charged should be 260 miles so based on 94 hoping to get 240 miles the car's computer is actually saying that it should do 176 miles but that'll have been calculated based on whoever was driving it before i've reset all the trip computers so we are good to go and see how far we can drive this thing we're off for this range test i am just going to drive this car normally i'm not going to be enthusiastic with the accelerator but i'm not going to nanny either these cars if they're going to work are going to have to be driven the way you want to drive them i'm also going to have the climate control on like i normally would this is a real world test we'll see what this car will do in terms of range if i was to drive it as i normally drive joining the motorway now for the long slogger head oh yeah classic m1 instantly into some road works brilliant that will help its range though sticking at 50 miles an hour i wonder if this car's got the cruise control in the limiter let's have a look yes it has oh and it's a clever system as well so it's using a radar to keep me a safe distance from that car in front you should have a lane keeping assist as well oh it's gonna do that thing where it bounces you between the white lines so it doesn't really hook you up dead central which is annoying you can't get away with letting go the steering wheel in this car and you can't confuse it like older systems which would test if there was any kind of like weight being pressed up against the steering wheel so you could just like add some weight to them and it would think oh someone's holding it but with this new system it uses similar technology to your mobile phone which can tell when you're touching the screen so you can tell when you're touching actually physically with your hands touching the steering wheel or not and if you're not yeah it'll tell you off and then the system will disengage electric cars aren't actually at their most efficient when they're cruising on the motorway at higher speed they're actually better when you're just in town doing stop start stuff because you don't have an engine chugging away they can really maximize their value there so we should test this car out in town and i'm approaching rugby so i'm going to head to the center and i can just use the sat nav of the id3 to do that and it's got voice command so i should be able to tell it to take me to the center of rugby and i'll do that by getting it to direct me to the high street so here we go hey id take me to the high street rugby did you mean sheffield or high street 12 the high street rugby please wait please stay in the street in northampton first what get my phone lewis did you mean voting no i don't mean boating or vet boating or vet what's this even on about just utter nuts cancel hey google take me to the high street rugby look there comes up with it straight away so we've got to get off here now i would be running android auto through this car normally but for some reason these very first editions don't have android auto or apple carplay i don't know the reason and neither did the man from vw anyway you will be able to retrofit it to these first edition cars and anyone who buys a series car which comes later so in the new year it will have apple carplay and android auto and that will be a good thing because yeah the voice commands on this as you just saw i'm very good do you mind just holding up and there louis let's give it another go hey id take me to the high street rugby strongness boy please say the name of the street how was what i said anything like strom ness hoy that'd have me going to scotland now the voice commands are better at stuff like setting the temperature for instance hey id set temperature what can i do for you set temperature to 25 degrees no problem yes it's done it thank god for that we're coming off the motorway now our energy usage is 3.9 miles per kilowatt hour see if it goes up or goes down when i'm driving around town ah i'm going to put this car into b mode so what that does is increase the regenerative effect when you lift off the accelerator so it slows the car down more without you having to touch the brake i like that because it gives you more control it's not as pronounced as it is in a honda e in fact if you click on the pop-up banner up there you can watch my full in-depth video review of the honda e it's going into a little tunnel but it does just allow you to not use the brakes so much and that improves your efficiency which is good now the suspension doesn't feel quite as soft as in a golf it's a bit harder that's because this car is heavier so they have to increase the stiffness of the suspension to stop it leaning so much in the bends but in no way is it uncomfortable it's quite nice steering's light as well actually this car's got a really good turning circle it's just over 10 meters it's slightly better than on something like a kia e nero and a tesla model 3. visibility is pretty good this extra window here really helps you've got a nice big windscreen the window ledge isn't too high the only issue is the view out the back isn't brilliant because the back window isn't very deep it's my only complaint yeah this is easy to live with and easy to drive i haven't touched the brake at all yet what's happening with the average energy consumption it's not 3.9 it hasn't changed anyway let's head off up north again i'm going to give this idea through another chance hey id take me to leeds did you mean maidstone leads no i meant leads volkswagen you need to sort this voice command stuff out because it's just utterly all i heard was a beep something must have been censored at least it has a sense of humor we're on track now finished with the town section made no difference to our energy consumption 3.9 miles per kilowatt hour based on that energy consumption this car's range would be 226 miles it's a bit shy of the 260 it's supposed to do i somehow managed to put that on that's the trouble with these touch sensitive buttons i've been noticing i've been dabbing them accidentally when i've been touching the screen so i'll just look you want the hazard lights to be like a real physical i want to press this i'm damn sure about it kind of thing especially when the indicators well i do like them they're rather quiet before we get back onto the motorway which incidentally is just there so you'll probably hear some cars whizzing by i thought i'd pull over in this random car park to take in the id3's design it's a really nice looking car it's futuristic enough without being too in your face about it but you can tell it's an electric car and it's got a real face on it hasn't it and i want to show you this when you unlock the car and it's dark which i have to cover the light sensor there so you can see it it's eyes sort of wake up and look around have a look at this can you see them they're like all right you want me and it gives this car personality i like this light bar as well which joins the two lights it's got a definite face a smiley happy cheery face obviously there's no big grill because there's no engine under there that requires cooling there are vents down here though which do help cool the drive system so if you're using the batteries quite heavily they will warm up and need cooling down a bit to be as efficient as possible let's move down the side so you get 18 inch alloys as standard these are the 19s that you can upgrade to 20s you've got this black panel here which matches the contrasting black roof and you get 210 paint on all models and this shape also matches the spoiler one thing i really like the creases in the doors gives the car a really good shape and you've got some side skirts here which looks sort of sporty moving to the back there's one thing i don't like so much here this decal now it changes depending on which version of the id3 you have though all of them are just stuck on and this one's already coming away look at that two-tone effect really looks great doesn't it you've got some sharp tail lights obviously they're leds in there it's a really nice looking car i prefer it in the look of the tesla model 3 which looks a bit like a fish from the front but what do you think let me know in the comments box below now we're back on the motorway let's talk through the id3 range so it's gonna be available with three different battery packs there's one with 45 kilowatt hours which is good for just over 200 miles this 58 kilowatt hour batch back in this car which as i said at the beginning is good for around 260 miles then there's the range topping 77 kilowatt hour battery pack which should be able to do 340 miles then there's three different motor choices the entry-level motor has 126 horsepower and it's good for nought to 60 in about 10 seconds then there's a 150 horsepower motor which should be able to do not 60 in nine seconds and there's the motor in this car which has 204 horsepower which can do 960 in just over seven seconds then the seven different trim levels with funny names but you can't get each motor or battery combination with each trim level it's all a bit confusing and vw hasn't confirmed what's what yet now if you click on the pop-out banner up there you can go to car wow to our dedicated id3 page and we'll keep updating that as vw announce what's what so that you know exactly what's happening and the prices of the cars and the different trim levels but as a guideline the range will kick off from about twenty five thousand pounds after a government grant rising all the way to forty thousand pounds for the all singing all dancing model now if you don't wanna click that link just at a later date google help me car wow and you can go to car wow where me and my team are there to help you choose the right car for you and make sure you get it for a fair price for our trusted dealers i thought i'd just take a break from driving to talk you through the interior design of this car so i really like the look of it it's smart and it's lifted by the fact that you can get different color combinations for the steering wheel and the dash top which does just make it seem more interesting what i'm not so keen on though is the build quality so while this panel on the top of the dash is squidgy and expensive feeling the rest of everything you touch is all pretty brittle and cheap plastic and then there's the build quality itself and fit and finish which isn't to the usual vw standards look at this glove box doesn't quite fit properly this center console wobbles quite a bit when i was removing our camera from here i noticed that that comes undone oops hopefully it's not broken so just leave that on there there's some felt in the door pocket to stop things rattling around though the amount of felt in there is less than in the door pocket of the old mark 7 golf in fact i think the interior quality of volkswagen's very latest cars is less than the previous generation versions partly because volkswagen was having to cut costs because they were hit with such big fines for the whole dieselgate scandal and because they're running two model lines side by side internal combustion engine cars and electric cars and that just costs so much money to do as a result the inside of this car isn't as nice as a tesla model 3. now who'd have thought that tesla would be doing better build quality than volkswagen in fact if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop-up banner up there anyway let's move on to this infotainment system so all cars get this screen as standard and it's fairly nice and bright and easy to navigate while i'm not so keen on though the touch sensitive buttons for the audio which it's very hard to just get it to do exactly what you want it and the touch sensitive buttons for the climate control and in the end you have to just press that button there and go into the normal climate so it's one press too many really it's frustrating i do like this little digital driver's display it's not big but it gives you all the information you want and you can change the views slightly depending on what you want to have bigger and smaller that's good what's not so good though are the touch sensitive buttons here so listen they make a noise and they vibrate when you swipe over them but you can swipe them but also press them and they click and you're not sure what button press you're supposed to do it should either just be a swipe touch sensitive or a press why have both can't complain about this though look that's the gear selector vw's just copied that from a bmw i3 but it's in a brilliant position also like this the way the instruments move with the steering wheel speaking of which the driving position yeah it's good and it's dead easy to get comfy lots of adjustment what's not so great though is the location of the lights here why they're there like in other volkswagen cars you go for them and then you end up knocking the indicator you put them there it's a bit of a shame really because otherwise this car is quite practical look big bottle fits in the door bin then you have a little net there for storing stuff got cup holder here big another cup holder here big another storage tray down there and specific place for your mobile phone with wireless charging then underneath here there's more storage area and you can move this divider about just as you want it and you've got two usbc inputs there so if you've got an old-fashioned usb cable you're going to need an adapter what's for given though because of this look fold down armrest in an electric family hatchback it's kind of thing you get in a land rover i love it yeah tiny things please tiny minds i'm back on the motorway again though this time i've decided to take a back seat and let my cameraman lewis have a drive now lewis likes a relaxed laid-back driving position and he's over six foot tall but despite that i've still got a decent amount of knee room here in the back headroom is good as well that's despite the fact that the batteries are underneath the floor and that normally means that you end up with the backseat quite high doesn't affect this car in fact even if i move into the middle seat look still got enough headroom there and there's plenty of room for everyone's feet as well because the car's floor is completely flat it's one of the benefits of it being an electric car and not an internal combustion engine car well it's also good it's storage back here so look dorben has enough room for a bottle there's also some pockets on the seat back so they are a little bit loose bit like old nicker elastic if i fall down this you have an armrest with a couple of cupholders in there it's a bit annoying that the cupholders aren't covered so when you rest on that your arm ends up in there it's not very comfortable if i pull this down we've got some through loading so you can have two people either side and carry longer items such as skis if you want to take your id3 skiing then if you look here we have some ice fix anchor covers so you can fit a child seat nice and easy and because they don't actually pop out these covers you won't lose them and it's enough space back here that it should be easy to maneuver even a big seat into position there's a couple of usbcs down here but charging your mobile devices the last thing for me to check is this world the back window go all the way down not quite not quite i'm afraid but at least the window is big so you get a good view out and the window ledge is quite low so even small children should be able to see out nice and easily i'm quite impressed with the room back here i think they've done a good job i've jumped back in the driver's seat and the car's just thrown up a warning the lane departure doesn't seem to be working look lane assist sorry this function is currently unavailable it's like why is it currently unavailable it was working before now it's not what's the point of having safety systems that don't work whenever destination programmed into your sat nav you have a light that just flashes across the dash just up there to get your attention to tell you you're about to have to make a maneuver and it'll actually flash in the direction you've got to go probably went bloody do it now come on id don't let me down maybe at the next junction it'll do it i can't even use the cruise control now because this system's gone crazy brilliant absolutely brilliant one thing i haven't done is see what this car is like for overtaking on the motorway it's actually pretty good in fact i better back off because now i'm going quite quickly i thought this light would flash to tell me to get off and follow the sat nav someone's done it is this car a bit glitchy and if it'll do it here at the roundabout just had a little warning pop up saying please charge vehicle because i've got 50 miles of range left i'm not charging at 50 miles that's loads 20 of battery it's all fine that was interesting look at that there the car knows that there is a hill in front of me and a change of speed so it's telling me to lift off the accelerator because i can just coast it's all designed to help maximize the efficiency now i've put motorway service station into the satellite navigation for two reasons one i want to turn this car off and on again see if i can reset it like a computer maybe fix this glitch also because i want to see if it'll do that thing with the id light just at the top of the dash and it will tell me to get off are you gonna work come on id light so it's come up with the satellite navigation with the direction there where's my id light nothing absolutely bloody nothing while the id3 is having a rest to get itself together let's talk about its boot capacity so there is 385 liters of space which is five liters more than you get in a normal conventional golf but you can still fit the same five airplane size carry-on suitcases in its boot i have tried to fit six in there but it won't fit properly you can actually fit six suitcases of this size in a similar sized car not an electric one to find out what that is click on the pop-out banner up there for my group test between a golf the new a3 bmw one series and the mercedes a-class if you're not into electric power go check that out anyhow let's get all this stuff out of the boot so i can show you some of the features here with me so as you'll see it's a nice square shape there are a few tie down points you've got 12 volt socket here and some hooks to hang your bags off now i'll just remove the parcel shelf and i guess if you're a regular to this channel you'll know what's coming now if i fold the seats down which is easy to do you'll see that there's a ridge there that's annoying now you can get this car with the false floor which reduces the load lip and gets rid of that ridge but this doesn't have it and that brings you onto five annoying things about the id3 the driver only has one switch to control the front and back window for each side of the car so this controls the right front but it also controls the right rear i just have to press this button to put it into rear mode and now look i can make the that one go up wouldn't they just fit more switches rather than this stupid lava whose idea was that look how small this glove box is the reason is that while volkswagen moved the steering wheel across to the right for the uk market they didn't move the fuse boxes under there that's the kind of stunt that peugeot pulls in fact if you want to see my full index video review of the peugeot e208 click on the pop-out banner up there anyway carry on if you have this car with a 77 kilowatt hour battery pack then it's a strict two seater here in the back rather than this three seater bench it might be because the extra batteries take up space into here so you can't sit anyone there brakes on electric cars can sometimes be a little bit jerky when you're maneuvering they're not on this they're smooth but they do make a noise occasionally when you stop hear that the design of these door pockets are a little bit confusing you see they actually extend way beyond the opening so you might think i've lost my keys what are they in the door pocket so you're looking no they're not in there look where's in fact yes they are right in the corner it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car got triplets and need to carry three baby seats no problem you get ice fixed anchor points even here on the front passenger seat are you pretty rubbish at parking and have lots of car park prangs well don't worry this car will automatically break if he thinks you're going to drive into something in the car park do you like a bit of the ambience in your car well the id3 has various light themes for the interior um of desire euphoria vitality the one called dysentery i don't know but you can also just choose it yourself and go for different colors that you prefer yup yup yup yup yup oh choice if you're buying this car for environmental reasons you'll be pleased to know that the seats are made from 20 recycled materials also volkswagen has paid to offset any carbon produced during the manufacture of this car so it's actually carbon neutral this car has a proper keyless go system so you don't have to do anything really just get in the senses that you're there with the key there's a pressure sensor in the seat as you sat down and then all i have to do to start the car is put my foot on the brake engage drive and off i go now when i want to get out i just put into park mode get out and it'll turn itself off yeah look at that now there is actually a starter button but that's just there for old times sake well i think the car has had long enough to reset itself no front assist availability is limited awesome error lane assist say a lot oh aerodynamic cornering light as well anything else while we're at it no all right let's get on with this before i run out of charge i want to see what this car is like to drive on a twisty road now it could be good fun because the motor is at the back it's rear-wheel drive so i'm going to put the car into sports mode now yes it has a sports mode that should sharpen the throttle response and oh yeah it's pretty zippy but what about the handling i mean this thing does weigh 1.8 tons so it's a bit lardy for a family hatchback you can blame the batteries for that but because they're mounted low you've got a low center of gravity so it doesn't lean too much when you chuck it into a bend the only problem is that you can't really feel how much grip the front wheels have got through this steering it's just all of it remote which is fine really in a car like this you're not one in a sports car and it does just grip the road well enough the only problem is the fact the suspension always seems a little bit busy it's like constantly jiggling about over the rough surface you don't want to push it too fast because it just doesn't feel quite planted enough it's fine though for however people are going to drive this car oh look it's just flipped over onto 10 of battery remaining it says i've got 26 miles of range left so i've done 181 miles so far and averaging 3.8 miles per kilowatt still please charge your vehicle you can search for a charging station nearby i think i'm gonna cancel that oh there we go look it's just flipped over to five percent of battery remaining we've got 11 miles left of range you know i'm not stressed there's something about this car it's just relaxing it's nice and pleasant and comforting to travel in okay i'm rapidly running out of range so i'm gonna get off the motorway here and head to a charger that i know is about four or five miles away oh i've got one percent of battery remaining two miles of range i don't seem to have any loss in power and i haven't got any warnings or anything on the driver's display oh no it's just clocked over to zero percent battery so at zero i've done 203 miles no percent of battery no miles of range yeah i don't seem to have any loss in performance oh no range remaining charged vehicle now 205 miles now so two miles driven when i've got no percentage battery and no range performance is restricted please consult vehicle wallet we've got the turtle sign up now it's not feeling quite as quick as before 210 miles now oh here we go only maneuvering possible please charge consult vehicle wallet oh no i'm totally dying it's really coasting steadily do a stop i better put my hazards on so the guys behind know i'm about to break down at least i'm in town what's going to happen now when i go around here is it going to just suddenly stop he's going to shut down i've come to a stop that's it that's my lot i'm rolling backwards right can i move no so that was good it slowed me down quite gradually it warned me about the problems that i was having and it's left me with the ability to use the power steering and to push it okay then let's push him out the way just get up the curb it's good that it lets you do this they've obviously thought about it the whole kind of running out of charge process so 210 miles are managed on 94 battery so that's about 220 if it had been 100 battery 40 miles off the claimed 260 miles but there you go it's not too bad what do i do now oh i know the rac actually has a service where they come out specifically to stricken electric vehicles and they can charge them at the roadside to get you moving so you can get to a proper fast charger so i'm just going to make that call i've just realized that this car is letting me maneuver look life in the old dog yet i'm not giving up until it's completely flat i wonder if it'll let me drive around here come on come on yes come on there's nothing there there's no power come on come on come on i am definitely driving oh 211 miles oh no this is definitely it this is the end yeah it's totally dead but it is rolling still let's roll over there safely off the road and i think that really is it now and i'd say that that is definitely the end of that so in the end we did 211 miles and when you adjust that for the fact that i started with 94 battery works out to 224 miles and really guys look i think this time it really is it oh look the id light's working now it comes alive welding id light thanks for finally turning up anyway it's called the racing gear charge i can actually drive to a proper charging station so the rac has connected their van up to my car they're charging it at three kilowatts which is about the same as you get from a normal three pin socket so it's quite slow but it's enough to give me a few miles range so i can get to that charging point obviously if i was further from a charging point i just have to wait it out but it's better than being completely stranded and if worse comes to the worst they can actually tow the car why don't we do that i want to drive it to the charging point they're actually working on improving the actual kilowatt output of their backup chargers to seven kilowatts so the same as a wall box home charger oh look the id light is working for the charging as well after leaving the car charging on the rac van for 30 minutes it had enough power to drive to a proper charger but please remember i ran out of battery on purpose the reality is the id3's real-world range is easily enough to suit most people's needs the only real inconvenience of it and other electric cars is that they take longer to refuel than a petrol or diesel car now as standard this car can charge at 50 kilowatts but this particular model is able to actually charge at 100 kilowatts and it can charge from empty to 80 fault in half an hour so charging at 50 kilowatts it's probably going to take an hour to get to 80 full you can even get the car with the 125 kilowatt charging capacity though that would be pointless most of the time [Music] so then what's my final verdict on the new volkswagen id3 should you avoid it should he consider it should he shortlist it or should he just go right ahead and buy it i reckon you should shortlist it it's not perfect but it's still a really good all-round electric car hello again it's a new day change of clothes and the id3 has had a new lease of live it's the classic turn it off leave it for a long time and turn it back on again and everything will be fine the error messages have gone the sensors are working the car is happy again oh modern tech eh

Channel: carwow

Views: 2,571,651

Keywords: carwow, mat watson, 4k review, car review, car review 2020, vw, volkswagen, id, vw id, volkswagen id, vw id3, volkswagen id3, vw id.3, volkswagen id.3, electric car, ev, vw id3 ev, vw id3 electric car, vw id3 review, volkswagen id.3 review, vw id.3 review, electric car review, ev review, vw id3 range test, volkswagen id3 range test, vw id.3 range test, volkswagen id.3 range test, vw id3 true range, volkswagen id3 true range, vw id3 glitch, vw id3 test, volkswagen id3 test

Id: 2hn31vLKgho

Length: 29min 40sec (1780 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I like the way it deals with running out of battery. You can push it! In my i3, when the battery runs out you cannot move the car. Very stupid.

[u/thwp7]

Basically everything’s out on the ID3 now, I was waiting for Matt’s review for a final verdict. I’m glad the car exists, but I wouldn’t want to buy it myself at it’s current state. I do hope that they can fix the software in time for the proper release, this is a very poor showing.

The way more important takeaway of all the different reviews though: the MEB platform seems to absolutely deliver. Basically every reviewer praises the interior space, efficiency and driving experience. Bodes well for all the upcoming MEB vehicles.

[u/[deleted]]

Build quality doesn’t sound all that great, all the errors flagging for cruise control and lane assist; and when it was working it just ping ponged back and forth. On top of that; the pattern on the C pillar pealing off, and the cheap decision to not move the fuse box to the right for right hand drive so UK drivers get a smaller glovebox.

Decent car, but some seriously dumb problems from a company with “experience”.

[u/CMBDSP]

I think the need for fleet emissions kind of screwed VW here. I can not imagine that they would have released the software in this state otherwise. Probably will be fixed in the in a few months, but i would not want to deal with it right now. Personally not a fan of pushing half baked things.

[u/[deleted]]

"This video is unavailable on this device."

Fuck this video

[u/Peugeot905]

I wonder why this is getting downvoted at this rate. Seems like a pretty good review to me.

[u/[deleted]]

Having owned 3 VWs and grown up in several generations of Jettas, I'm very surprised by the poor build quality of that ID.3. Is it a bad one or what everyone is experiencing? Time will tell.

One thing for sure, if you compare the software to say Google Auto in the Polestar 2, it sucks. You can tell Google spends a lot of money on search and maps. They do it well.

Still, that's exactly the sort of car I would get were it avaiable in Canada.

[u/Vercixx]

I didn't watch the whole video, but from what I've seen:

This ID.3 has the mid-size battery of 58 kWh net (62 kWh gross). Don't know the trim level or the wheels size or if the tires were for summer or winter.

At 27:25 I see the distance was 211 mi meaning 340 km. Having started with 94% SoC that gives a range of 224 mi or 361 km. But this is not verified with GPS. Bjorn Nyland says the ID.3 under reports the distance by 0.8% so adjusting for this error the range would be 226 mi or 363 km.

Trip time is 6h01' so the average speed is 35 mph or 56 kmh, as it is also shown on the screen. He drove on the highway with 70 mi or 112 kmph, but I don't know how much of the road trip wast at that speed.
The efficiency was 3 mi or 4.82 km/kWh which translates into 208 Wh/km. A tiny bit lower if adjusting for GPS distance.
He started at 9:25 in the morning with 16 degrees Celsius and finished at 19:37 with 12 degrees Celsius.
The road was dry.

For such a low average speed, the range and efficiency seem pretty low, at least compared to what I've seen from Bjorn Nyland and Battery Life in their ID.3 range tests.

But it matters how long has he been driving at 70 mph or 112 kmph and how long at very low speeds so that it gets an average of 35 mph.

[u/troutsushi]

tl;dw?