VW ID.7 Pro S Match road test review: An EV designed from the ground up with good range

Volkswagen’s ID. range is designed as an EV from the ground up – and it shows. DAVID HOOPER discovers this ID.7 is a great family car with a good range – and it even has a big boot!

IT’S a while since I’ve driven a Volkswagen, despite being a big fan of the brand, and indeed, having owned a few over the years, including a Mk I Golf Driver which was quickly followed by a Mk II GTi, in Mars Red, which is still one of my all-time favourite cars to this day!
So I was very much looking forward to reacquainting myself with the brand – and I wasn’t disappointed with one of the German manufacturer’s latest offerings, the ID.7 when it turned up on my driveway. The ID. is not just one model, it’s the naming convention for a range of VW models, and stands for “intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies”. The ID. range are all EVs which have been designed from the ground up to be electric – but whether EVs can be described as visionary is, perhaps, debateable!
The ID.7 is the largest member of the family and this example certainly looks impressively classy with its Stonewashed Blue metallic paintwork and contrasting gloss black trim and 19in wheels. It’s a big car, and has an impressively large boot for an EV, many of which often suffer from the electric motors under the floor limiting the available boot space.
The interior has a very upmarket look and feel to it, and oozes quality. The dashboard is dominated by an enormous 15in touchscreen which looks really good and controls nearly all of the car’s functions, but I didn’t find it particularly intuitive to use at first and it took me a while to find my around, but familiarity after a few days with the car helped, but I do still prefer some proper buttons for key features. An example was my search for the heated rear window switch on frosty mornings – I couldn’t find it for love nor money, then eventually spotted it on the right hand side of the steering column with all the lighting controls!
I loved the Play and Pause symbols on the two pedals and the panoramic sunroof with smart glass which can change from clear to opaque almost instantly. I also loved the dynamic lights and strobe type lights on the rear of the car which scroll from the central VW badge to the outer edges of the car and back again, which looks brilliant.
Our test car is the longer range Pro S Match model which comes with an 86kWh battery, instead of the 77kWh battery of the Pro version. The Press Pack says it comes with an impressive WLTP range of 436 miles, but when the car was delivered to me, with 100% charge it was only showing a range of 330 miles. Many factors affect range on EVs, and the car had just been driven up from Milton Keynes on the motorways, and it was cold, only four degrees, and rechargeable batteries of any size don’t like the cold.
The ID.7 is debuting a new electric motor which endows the car with an impressive 286PS and a torque figure of 545Nm, which means it’s quick, with a 0-62mph figure of 6.6 seconds and pulls like a train and because there are no gears to change the acceleration is engagingly relentless. And when you’ve used up most of your battery charge, it can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in around 26 minutes on a fast charger in optimum conditions. My excellent Pod Point charger at home takes longer, but an overnight charge sees the car ready to roll again in next morning.
On the road, the ID.7 drives beautifully and thanks to all the technology, will almost drive itself, keeping itself in its lane, negotiating bends (within reason), coming to a halt in traffic and moving off again, great in a Hull traffic jam, and adapting its speed to the flow of motorway traffic, while all the time keeping the driver informed via a head-up display projected on to the windscreen. The driver is almost a passenger, but if the car senses you haven’t got your hands on the steering wheel, it soon tells you off! Oh yes, and it will park itself, if you dare to let it!
I took my parents for a weekend away in this ID.7, and I’ve been told by Mum that I have to mention the lovely heated seats which did an excellent job of massaging her bad back.
We went to Kew Gardens, in London, to see an orchid exhibition, and were fortunate with the weather while I was doing battle with various charging points in that it wasn’t raining – apart from the temperature which left my hands like lumps of ice, but that’s a story in itself.
Let’s just say that my view of EVs has not changed, in that if you can charge the car at home, go out for the day, or two, and return without having to charge it up again away from home, they are ok. An increasing number, like this one, are actually quite nice and now have a decent range, even when it’s cold, but the national charging infrastructure, while improving all the time, is still not up to the job of supporting the mass adoption of EVs.
I’ll leave it there!

Rating:

If you like this, read our review on the Cupra Born

THE VITAL STATISTICS
MODEL: VW ID.7 Pro S Match 86 kWh 286PS 1-spd automatic
BATTERY: 86kWh, 286PS, driving rear wheels through electric motor.
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 112 mph. 0-62mph in 6.6 secs.
ECONOMY:
Range WLTP Combined: 436 miles/kWh
Consumption WLTP Combined 4.5 miles/kWh
CHARGING:
Connection type: Combined Type 2 and CCS
On-board charger (AC) 7 kW
Charging time (DC): 200kW rapid charge: 26 min (10-80%)
Charging time (AC): 11Kw 3-phase; 9 hr (to 100%)
Battery nominal storage capacity (net) 77kWh (net)/82 kWh (gross)
Battery warranty 8 years/100,000 miles.
CO2 EMISSIONS: 0g/km.
PRICE: £55,480 (as tested) £60,280
WEBSITE: www.volkswagen.co.uk
• All data correct at time of publication.