The ID.4 EV is joining the ranks of the ever growing EV SUV market
Better late than never? Volkswagen reveals the wildly popular ID.4 EV is finally being imported down under with a bold target of outselling Tesla – currently the biggest-selling EV brand here.
Imagine being asked to review a movie after only being allowed to watch the trailer, and stare at the poster, and you’ll have some idea what it was like to take a special, but stupidly short, preview drive in the very important Volkswagen ID.4 EV.
Volkswagen Australia has been desperately trying to get its ID range of EVs – already very successful and widely loved overseas, the ID.4 won World Car of the Year in 2021 – down under for some time, but unfortunately head office in Germany kept laughing at them.
It seems that the company’s executives can read and have the internet and thus noticed that, rather than encouraging and incentivising Australians to shift to EVs, the Morrison Government was doing the opposite, or at least that‘s how VW saw the situation.
Now that the mood around EVs has shifted under the Albanese Government, VW has announced it will finally be able to import the ID.4… late next year.
For now, however, it has been able to ship two UK-spec examples into the country, neither of which can be driven on public roads, so instead it invited fleet buyers, government officials and some journalists to a driver-training facility in Sydney where we were allowed to drive them on a closed 1.65km-long loop road, littered with traffic cones.
This was, obviously, less than ideal, but it was long enough for us to test the ID.4’s acceleration – it can hit 100km/h in a fairly pedestrian 8.5 seconds, but it doesn’t feel that slow, thanks to the torque punch of its EV platform – and throw it at some tight bends.
The ID.4 is VW’s first electric SUV and is classified as “mid-sized”, but it does feel particularly spacious inside, even in the rear seats, partly thanks to the flat floor, and lack of a transmission tunnel, allowed by its EV layout (EVs only have one gear and thus no conventional gearbox), and a 2765mm wheelbase.
More ID vehicles, built on the same platform, will follow, including the very cute ID.3 hatchback, a coupe-styled ID.5 and even an EV version of the venerable and venerated Kombi van, known as the ID.Buzz.
The looks of all the ID range are smooth and modern, with every possible effort made to help them slip through the air with a low coefficient of drag, because every little bit helps when it comes to extending the range of an electric vehicle.
Speaking of which, there are two versions of the ID.4, the Pure and the Pro, with the first, cheaper model offering a 55kWh battery that will give you 345km of claimed range. The bigger 82kWh battery in the Pro lifts the range to 522km, which is a lot more like it, and very competitive with other EVs on the market locally. Both cars get a single motor, driving the rear wheels.
Charging times from zero to 80 per cent of battery range from 26 minutes on a DC fast charger to eight hours on a wallbox home charger, or up to 35.5 hours on a normal house powerpoint.
Both cars have 310Nm of torque while the Pure gets just 125kW against the Pro’s 150kW. Neither version is particularly sporty, but they are perfect city cars because they are punchy where you need them to be, from zero to 50km/h off the lights, and from 60 or 80km/h in rolling acceleration.
It was a bit hard to judge ride and handling on such a short circuit, but the IDs felt properly Germanic in terms of solidity and steering feel. It didn’t take much to produce Hollywood squeals from the tyres, but then this is a mid-sized SUV, not a Golf R.
Pricing will, of course, define the success of Volkswagen’s ID range, and whether it can meet its bold target of outselling Tesla – currently the biggest-selling EV brand in Australia.
VW Australia hasn’t decided an exact figure yet, but it will have “target pricing” similar to its Tiguan 162TSI R-Line, which sells for $57,690. The ID.5 will then arrive at a price about $10K higher, so a $60-$70K range seems likely.
“Our goal is that we will outsell them (Tesla),” says Volkswagen Australia head of product for passenger vehicles, Michelle Rowney. “We are a volume brand and that’s what we want to do.
“We don’t look at [ID.4] as it sits in that little EV segment; it sits in the medium SUV segment, it suits the needs of a family car, it suits the needs of that segment.”
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