Volkswagen ID.4 review - Engines, performance and drive
Majoring on comfort rather than outright performance, the ID.4 offers a smooth ride and is easy to drive
No matter if you’re driving a high-performance EV or a less potent electric city car, you’ll certainly notice the instant response from just a prod of the accelerator, which can be especially useful when navigating through busy urban streets and (whisper it) actually becomes quite addictive.
Volkswagen has decided to tailor the ID.4 in a slightly different way, with available torque being limited to help deliver smoother progress. This does have an impact on full-bore sprinting ability, but probably better suits the car’s set-up and family load-lugging bias. There is the 295bhp GTX version for anyone craving extra pace, but the Tesla Model 3 AWD Long Range model is quicker and cheaper, so it’d be difficult to make a case for the fastest ID.4 unless you’re a dyed in the wool VW fan.
The ID.4’s light steering and soft suspension add to its easy-going nature, while longer road trips on motorways are an excuse to utilise the adaptive cruise control and sail on to your destination in complete comfort. In our three-way test we judged the ID.4 as having the best low-speed ride compared to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Despite the EV powertrain and new platform architecture, there is still a familiarity to piloting the ID.4 for anyone that has previously driven a VW model. Just don’t expect too much in the way of driving enjoyment and you won’t be disappointed.
One job we’d recommend to Volkswagen for the future facelift model would be to add more regenerative braking settings, so that you can utilise one-pedal driving in and around town. There are only two modes currently available, and neither is strong enough to support this function.
Engines, 0-60 acceleration and top speed
Super fast acceleration isn’t the ID.4’s speciality, although the 295bhp GTX version is capable of a decent turn of speed: 0-62mph is dispatched in 6.2 seconds, which is decent, but not up to the pace of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and well behind the Tesla Model 3.
The ID.4 Pro Performance variant delivers 201bhp and a sprint time of 8.5 seconds, while the 168bhp Pure Performance and 146bhp Pure cars manage 9.0 seconds and 10.9 seconds, respectively.
Which Is Best
Cheapest
- Name109kW Life Pure 52kWh 5dr Auto
- Gearbox typeAuto
- Price£34,305
Most Economical
- Name150kW Life Pro Performance 77kWh 5dr Auto
- Gearbox typeAuto
- Price£41,330
Fastest
- Name220kW GTX 77kWh AWD 5dr Auto
- Gearbox typeAuto
- Price£47,835