Volkswagen ID.3 2021: In-depth review with Ginny Buckley / Electrifying 

Agreed, I spotted an ID.3 "in the wild" yesterday and a Polestar 2 today. Teslas are of course all over the place.

heard this for 7 years now... 🤣

It’s still probably the biggest stopper to the expansion of EVs right now. Hope more car manufacturers take the TESLA route and integrate charge points network into their offering. Imagine Kia having a public charging network attached to every garage and showroom across the UK. Add a few vending facilities or maybe access to cycle track. Make charging with Kia a good experience. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vGmOWvrxTu4.html

Not sure what the situation is in UK, but in North America, it's still too expensive to switch to EV. Gas is way cheaper here, and distances are very long. If I was to buy an ID.4 ( We don't buy small cars out here ), it would take me 10 years to break even. Not making sense yet.

@@_TrueDesire_ well there are more cars and more chargers now then there were 7 years ago

Great spec in the max that’s what I want

How’s the HUD on your Max?

Did it ever happen to you that the car switched to neutral by itself while driving?

The only real future proofing a car gets is with a full reconditioning service/relationships with the OEM manufacturer. PSA seem to be having the head start on this.

@@TheBroz Excellent! Will be even more so when the AR navigation comes in Q1 2021. :-)

@@olivierl2172Nope...

It is fair... if you’ve not got many years left in your life to enjoy the cheaper running.

But that's what people initially see....... Sure, the long term running costs of an EV are massively less than an i.c. car, but non EV owners don't see that.......

@@Brian-om2hh That's true for everything though. Cost per ware for a pair of good shoes that last you decades is way less than buying cheap shoes every year, but it takes a certain amount of intelligence and education to understand that.

5 seconds longer than these piano varnish coatet instruments :D

My Kona has the space for front storage but Hyundai chose to install a fake engine cover instead. I removed it, fitted gas struts to the bonnet and mounted a storage box on the existing mounting points for the fake cover. Cables stored nicely. Doesn't get hot and stays dry, freeing up valuable space in the boot.

The ID.3 has a stubby nose, there really isn’t much wasted space at all.

She means the wheels are further out in the corners of the car body

That really depends on your country, in most countries the 1st edition is sold out, especially in countries with attractive incentives.

The ID.3 is actually a great deal bigger in real life than it appears in photos and media.

Robert Berry the fan boys are correct though. The VW is slow, has mediocre range and charges relatively slowly. It's not price competitive and it's tech is also mediocre. VW had so little confidence in it, that they delayed its intro by a year.

We got one a few weeks ago and rejected the Model 3 as the ID3 has a better build quality and it’s quieter

@@fatbroadshorsefacedlesbian8619 ? ID3 First Edition charges at 100kWhr

@@fatbroadshorsefacedlesbian8619 It wasn’t delayed at all. What are you talking about? Summer 2020 was already announced when they revealed the first prototype, the ID Neo, many years ago.

Correct - and sadly not very surprising!

And the annoying thing is fiat Chrysler was at it too the EPA knew and did nothing, why because it's an American company, soon after the EPA got cut back big time.

@@hazzerhazzer2741 GM did it as well. Vauxhall-Opel were the worst for cheating. They tried to sue the academics who found out as well - until the academics found the cheating written clearly into the code on their cars.

too chunky for me but the interior looks very good. i wood like that in a cupra elbown with the higher performance

The Enyaq will be great as Škoda is fab, but I went for ID 3 because I just don’t need a car the size of the Enyaq.

Functionality of the infotainment is not the best,it forgets settings ,but that won't stop you getting from a to b. Great car otherwise , as quick as an old golf gti in straights , not that quick in the corners

She was specifically referring to the symbols on the pedals, not the fact there were only two of them.......

Indeed the same one that found the US big 3 cheating on numerous occasions over the past 4 decades and gave them equivalent of a fixed penalty notice in corporate fines. Anyone who thinks VW were the only ones doing it on a massive scale is kidding themselves, the US Gov just isn't interested in chasing it's domestic makers to anywhere near the same extent.

The EPA is tougher than the UK EA and regulators

I see 58kwh ID.3s on Autotrader starting at £27500

Oops Software issues ! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ujZhC6T1c9A.html

Ooops Software issues ! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ujZhC6T1c9A.html

@timemachine_194 Software issues still need to be sorted. Let's see these have hardly had a real life time of information. I have no doubt the ID3 will be amazing ...next year.

It always depends on your personal needs and expectations. But the ID.3 indeed has very good allround qualities, in many respects even more so than a Golf. Use of Space and its effect on driving: It is small enough for the city and drives very well in sharp bends etc. (turning cycle of 10,2 metres which is closer to VW's dwarfish Up with 9,8m than to a Polo with 10,7m or even Golf with 11m!). But it is also spacious and comfortable enough for long distances. The passengers have almost as much space as in a Passat without the Passat's obstacles for their legs and they sit a bit higher up like in a Golf Plus without having to drive an SUV. So in this respect it may actually be the best VW there ever was and even more space efficient than a Tesla. But if you don't care about compact size or driving in the city as much as for a frunk or a (still) larger boot and if you actually enjoy a deep sporty sitting position anyways, there will be better cars out there. Energy Efficiency/ Suitability for long distances: Many drivers seem to get an average consumption around 17ish kWh per 100 km or 60ish miles. You can get around 15 kWh with realistic effort and the right surroundings, but you can also get over 20 kWh. At higher speed the ID.3 is slightly less efficient than a Tesla Model 3 and recharging at a fast charger takes a bit longer, but the difference actually isn't nearly as big as many expected. In other words, you do have a very efficient car (even more so at lower speed) so even on the motorway the comfortable high up sitting position doesn't cost as much range as many thought. Some reviewers have driven 600 miles in one go and neither the car nor the passengers had any issues with this (depending on traffic, speed limits and charging networks, 600 miles took between 10ish and 11ish hours). A Norwegian Tesla enthusiast even drove the ID.3 up to the Northern Cape and back and praised it quite a lot. Quality: You do not get an Audi and you will have to live with some plastic. Otherwise the car seems to be totally fine (no roof falling off etc.) and much of it is even far better than it may appear at first sight. So many reviewers don't mind the plastic, yet many others do. It completely depends on your subjective expectations. If you buy now, you also have to deal with some software bugs. None of them seem serious, but it can be quite annoying. Personally, I would wait for some updates, but all cars will get the updates anyways. Power: It clearly isn't a Tesla Performance etc., but 150kW/ 204hp can easily deal with a car like this. If you don't need to accelerate like a rocket or to drive over 100 mph, you will be fine. Assistance Systems and Safety: The ID.3 actually introduced a lot of features to this class, some of which even Tesla doesn't have yet (Matrix LED lights, head up display, a travel assist which always keeps you at the right speed and even takes you through a roundabout...). It also has good breaks and enough airbags and got the highest possible rating in the newest more strict NCAP crash test. Price: In my opinion, you won't find a better car for the same price, but it isn't very cheap either. Some say, they'll rather wait for the Skoda Enyaq though which is a larger car and may not be far more expensive. The Chinese also may offer decent electric cars for lower prices soon.

@@jfe1985 thank you for such detail.

That is definitely Tesla's trump card but having said that I had a Zoe ZE40 for three years and in 19k miles I only had to public charge 5 times and never had difficulty finding a charger (I did have to plan longer trips though). In other words if you can charge at home and don't do regular round trips of more than 200 miles it will be fine. I think over £20k is still more than I would spend on any car these days so from my perspective it is still expensive. I have a petrol car again now and fuelling it is was more hassle than home charging (I much prefer driving it to the Zoe though).

@@robsmith1a You wrote: "In other words if you can charge at home and don't do regular round trips of more than 200 miles it will be fine." - you are so right, and that description covers most of the population, so yes this car is going to be a massive hit in my opinion and hugely outsell the Tesla Model 3.

This is standard for basically all EV manufacturers in the UK.

@@benrgrogan Not true, some manufactures do not quote the after grant price - for example Tesla does not, Hyundai does, kia does not , but then includes a PiCG price later, GM does, Polestar does. etron/ipace/EQC are too expensive of course for grant.

@@Tom55data Taking a quick look at websites it seems Tesla, BMW and DS are the only brands that doesn't have 'On the road price' (featuring the government grant) as the default price on their website. Polestar uses on the road price, as does Kia , Hyundai, VW, MG, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Nissan, Renault, Mini, and Honda. Hence me saying it's the standard across the UK market basically all mainstream brands advertise the prices this way, with clearly the exception being the 'premium' brands.

I prefer this small hatchback, but we're apparently getting the crossover version of this in the US, which I don't like. For a little more money the Tesla M3 or Y seem better values.

I mean the USA has most of the same options Europe has

You are getting the ID4........

They do have plans for a hot hatch MEB-based car. They are just splitting segments/models between the brands in the VW Group, so the hot hatch will be the (Seat) Cupra. It's currently being tested on the Nurburgring, according to the motor press.

@@panzerkami2381 Many thanks for this info. I did not know that so will keep a look out for further news on this.

Thats it keep voting for yourself , name one maker who is not guilty of putting unsafe cars on the road .

@@golfmother3141 So what you are saying is this is perfectable acceptable... Strange logic

@@golfmother3141 i get tired of hearing it in mostly Tesla channels like everything they do is perfect vw is trying to move on lots of polluting out there no one mentions done by other cars air planes ect

@@markfitzpatrick6692 Yep , how F%%d killed many with incorrect tyres not rated over 80mph just to save a dollar , or General Mobsters and the faulty steering lock that killed many .

@@raymondsmith9936 Was for BMW , MB , Hyundai etc etc , any names of the dead would be of interest .

They better move fast before Tesla Giga Factory is ready. The price is very close a Tesla and we know the cars from Giga Berlin will be cheaper.

@@casperhansen826 cheaper for tesla, not for the customer. VW is not sleeping. they already designed the second battery with cells from sk-innovations for the US version of the ID4. but they do not need a battery day to lecture people about battery chemistry. VW has one super big advantage over tesla, and that is making a well rounded package for a certain price point. tesla makes cars for elon and his fanboys who think that elon is always right. VW is making a package suited for the people. 3 battery sizes and even high end features like matrix LED and a headup display with augmented reality - where they are behind regarding the software. or the led signal bar inside the car. lots of innovations are happening here while tesla takes away the display behind the steering wheel and call it a feature and his blinded cult followers are applauding and pay 10 grand extra. teslas also have nice features like the performance of the drive train and good efficiency but they don't know what a good package means.

@@stefanweilhartner4415 I would say you are right if it was Apple, but Tesla lowers their prices once in a while.

@@casperhansen826 they have to. we can see in norway what happens when their charging network is not a factor for buying a tesla anymore. people buy less teslas and more other cars. the model 3 went down to place 5 in the buying charts.

Amen. In addition the travel assist is state of the art.

In the UK perhaps but not elsewhere. insideevs.com/news/458440/norway-plugin-car-sales-november-2020-id3/

There will always be people who don't drive beyond their local area. For them a cheaper model with a smaller battery pack/range will make sense.

@@benrgrogan but need t with a higher price than an ICE car. That's the problem. People see EVs as expensive compared to the alternatives. To break that they need to feel the EV car should be able to do "everything": from doing local shopping to large trips to visit your family.

@@DanRyzESPUK true but choice is rarely a bad thing. Selling volume is what they need to get the cost down, and lower priced-lower range cars will help them sell this volume. The two most successful 'afforadable' EV's in the UK at the moment are also two of the lowest range - the Nissan Leaf and MG ZS partially because the 40kw batteries of their base models has enough range for many but keep them affordable. Some people need more range - in which case they should be able to pay to upgrade to a larger battery* but there is still a large market for smaller battery affordable EV's and trying to appeal to this market will help increase economies of scale and bring down costs. *They can already do this with the leaf and will be able to do it in the ZS from next year

@@benrgrogan there is this wrong idea that more range is always better. It’s not. A bigger battery means higher price, more weight hence less performance and less space. No reasons to have a battery bigger than what you usually really need.

Not sure if you have actually sat in an ID.3 and had a good look and feel of the interior but I can tell you it's actually excellent. I loved it.

Hard plastics are very practical and look great, and bring the cost of the car down. I love the interior of the ID.3. Who on earth is going to lose sleep over the hardness of the plastics in their car's interior anyway? All those RU-vid influencers have whinged and whined about hard scratchy plastics so much in their reviews of various cars, it seems to have created a whole new breed of snowflakes out there...

@@edstratton No matter what you think, I dislike the hard plastics (it just looks and feels cheap) and especially the scratchy gloss black which looks gruesome after 1 week. I get it on the base model of ID.3, no problem, but the higher trims go up to 47k€. And if my 20k Mazda 3 manages to have soft plastic and fake leather on the door panels a 47k VW should manage to do the same.

@@welfiblablabla But it has the fake leather on the door armrest, no? And real leather at the steering wheel which you actually touch.

Driver profiles are apparently coming.

@@timmurphy5541 That'd be great

'Niro', but yes, agreed.

Mind you Kia is not a VW brandwise..

@@ACPilot No it’s not a VW brand-wise but are you really happy paying thousands of £££ more for a brand name? Anyway, look at the new Nissan Ariya ev. Looks very much like the VW id4. In fact I think it looks a wee bit better in the gold colour. Lots of nice EV’s coming out and with the virus I don’t think I’ll be out looking for one until about August.

They now can get an ID.3 Tour under 40000!

"50% of the 1st pre-orderers cancelled" That's false. Cite your source.

@@panzerkami2381 You prove it's false, Read my post, 50% of the pre-orderers on 1 ev forum cancelled their pre-orders (not 50% of all UK pre-orders) otherwise if all the 1st edition cars (I believe was only 1500 for the UK of the 30,000 to be built) were all pre-ordered (so you could not order one), how come dealers have 1st edition cars for sale, also 125 ID.3's are for sale on Autotrader. Check out the list on Speak EV to see how many cancelled their pre-orders

Occasional Use cable that plugs directly into a wall socket, normally around 3kW. Granny = Grandma. Granny charger is a fairly common term used in the UK for a very slow charger.

@@markparker5585 I call it shuko.

Oh wait, "purpose-built electric car", I guess that _is_ accurate. Still, as an avid e-Golf owner, I hate to see it forgotten.

If you want the ICE clan to win inside VW and delay their EV transformation for a couple of decades then of course, do not reward their good decisions.

@@timmurphy5541 I agree and to be honest the best thing to come out of VW is Herbert Diess.