Volkswagen ID.4 review - Engines, performance and 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.

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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.