Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The ID 4 is VW’s electric SUV for the masses”.
Last year, when volkswagen unveiled its first long-range electric vehicle for the us, the id4, it warned us not to make the obvious comparisons to other electric vehicles like tesla. That’S because volkswagen says its real competition is all the popular gas powered compact suvs like the ford escape honda, crv and toyota. Rav4, vw has its eyes on a higher prize, not just the most popular electric vehicle in its segment, but the most popular vehicle on the road period did they succeed? Well, i’ve only had the id4 for a couple days, but i can comfortably say that the id4 is both a great ev and a really excellent midsize suv. It has plenty of range for daily driving and short trips. The technology inside feels intuitive without being in your face, and the really surprising thing is the whimsicality of the id4, like vw, wants you to just have fun while driving it. The id4’s origins aren’t so playful car wouldn’t be here today. If it wasn’t for dieselgate the massive emissions cheating scandal that nearly crippled vw five years ago as part of its many settlements, vw promised to spend billions of dollars towards electric vehicles. That’S why they’re releasing the id4 now and not two or three years from now when the ev market is a bit more mature, consider it an apology for all the extra pollution created by their diesel vehicles and, as far as apologies go, the id4 is a pretty Great start: let’s talk about the car itself. There are three different trim levels, the pro the pro s and the first edition, which is the one that we have here and obviously the first one available for sale. The cheapest model, the pro with rear wheel drive, will retail for 39 995 dollars.
But when you factor in the 7 500 federal tax incentive, plus any local and state tax credits, the id4 lands in that low to mid thirty thousand dollar range. That’S generally considered the sweet spot for most u.s car buyers. There are six exterior colors to choose from.
We got the blue desk, which i think is really cool it pops without being too ostentatious. The first edition id4 is expected to get 250 miles of range on a single charge, but that hasn’t been certified. Yet by regulators, it’s possible that the epa will rate the id4 with less than 250 miles of range, which could drive away those customers who have extreme range anxiety either way it’s not as much as a tesla model 3 or the model y. But i think it’ll suit most people’s needs. Vw says every effort has been made to optimize aerodynamics. You can see that with the swooping lines in the body of the vehicle, the large roof spoiler and with the door handles that are flush against the side. Again, not exactly revelatory. A lot of evs have similar features, but it does show that vw is thinking seriously about ways that it can improve range.
This version has an 82 kilowatt hour battery, which is located in the floor of the vehicle, helping create a really low center of gravity. The electric motor is located in the rear of the vehicle, which is similar to the volkswagen beetle. You can feel that when you’re on a winding road and the id4 is just really hugging the curves, there are four driving modes: eco comfort, sport and a custom setting that allows drivers to pick and choose from the other modes to best suit their own style. It’S got a pretty good oomph for an ev with 201 horsepower and 228 pound-feet of torque.
It can sprint from zero to 60 in a little over seven seconds, which is nowhere near as fast as tesla’s performance models. While driving, you would expect a low-grade motor were common with evs and you’d. Be right. No noisy combustion engine under the hood means no noise radiating throughout the vehicle’s interior.
As you accelerate the motor definitely emits a higher pitched sound, but it’s not distracting. There is a fake sound that the vehicle makes at low speeds, as required by law, to alert pedestrian and cyclists. It’S kind of a video gamish nintendoish sound that legit made me laugh when i first heard it one of my favorite parts about the id4 are the front and rear lights. Normally, i’m not into illuminated vehicle badges, but there’s just something appealing about the light bar stretching across the full width of the vehicle.
It’S the id4’s way of saying: hey, i’m an electric car without exactly clubbing you over the head with it there’s actually a lot of cool lighting accents all over this vehicle at night time. A hexagonal light emanates from both the driver and passenger door handles and projects on the ground inside the vehicle. A light bar runs along the base of the windshield that serves as a communication device if you’re using the navigation and you’re about to turn right. A blue light will move left to right across the width of the windshield to signal that you’re about to make a turn.
It also serves as a status bar when you’re charging the vehicle. I thought it seemed gimmicky at first, but seeing it in action. I found it to be actually pretty helpful and the interior lights are all adjustable. There are 30 different colors to choose from. Are the adjustable lights absolutely necessary? No, but are they fun to play with yes, more evidence of vw’s quirky designs? Are the play and pause pedals? I remember seeing these a few years ago in vw’s id buzz electric microbus concept and thinking they seemed really stupid, but now i kinda get it. I mean you can’t call it a gas pedal when the car runs on electrons right.
So why not play and pause? There are two screens, a 5.3 inch instrument, cluster behind the steering wheel and a 12 inch one in the center console it’s nice to see a pair of screens that don’t completely dominate the interior. The ux is totally fine, but for those who prefer their smartphone’s interface, the id4 supports both wireless apple, carplay and android. Auto the screens look great. They were bright and vibrant and the colors really popped. There’S a home button on the left side of the screen for easy access, and the default software felt similar enough to carplay that i was fine using either. That said, the id4s navigation is not as clean looking as google maps, but that’s usually the case with most cars today there aren’t any physical buttons, but there are haptic feedback ones that felt really satisfying to touch now.
There’S a voice assistant which is activated by saying hello id and it worked pretty well hello id turn my seat heater on okay warming. Now hello id change, the ambient lighting to blue. Please select an ambient lighting setting on the screen you got ta make me do it like that.
Sometimes i found i had to repeat myself to really get it to work. I mean it’s definitely not as advanced as the new volvos with native android, auto and there’s gesture control, as you can see that works pretty well uh, sometimes other times not so much. I can see that as being something that probably most people don’t end up using.
I didn’t experience a lot of lagginess in my time with the id4, but there were a few sticky spots now. The id4 will accept over-the-air software updates in the future. So it’s not anything that volkswagen can’t fix. Now volkswagen is new to ota updates, so it remains to be seen how they will actually approach it. The panoramic roof is similar to what’s found in most teslas these days and was really a joy to sit under the white leather in the first edition was a nice touch and the air vents are real air vents with open and closed knobs. So this might be the car for you if you find tesla’s digital air fence off-putting the id4 uses a front radar front camera two rear radars and eight ultrasound sensors to see the world around it.
The driver assist system not as advanced as autopilot or super crews, but it does have the standard features like adaptive, cruise control, automatic emergency, braking blind spot detection and pedestrian monitoring. Let’S talk charging the id4 comes with an 11 kilowatt on-board charger that will charge the vehicle to full in seven and a half hours at home or at a public level, 2 charger. As with most evs, it’s not recommended to charge the id4 on a normal 120 volt outlet, because the rate of charging is practically glacial at a dc fast charging station with 125 kilowatt charging available, the id4 can charge from 5 to 80 in about 38 minutes. Now the challenge, of course, is finding a public charger that actually provides that much power.
A lot of public chargers really only provide about half as much as that. One of the big selling points for the id4 is three years of free charging with vw’s electrify america. Charging network now, like tesla vw, have skin in the game when it comes to electric vehicle charging infrastructure that’ll go a long way to luring shoppers away from the warm embrace of combustion engine familiarity. Electrify america has approximately 470 charging stations in the u.s, with over 2 000 dc fast chargers, though the company expects to install or have under development, approximately 800 stations, with about 3 500 dc fast chargers by december 2021, a fast reliable network of charging stations will go. A long way in selling the id4 to customers, the 40 000 price tag will help too, but it’s still going to be tough for vw to siphon away buyers from low-priced alternatives like the honda cr-v or toyota rav4, both of which are in the mid 20 000 Range volkswagen is calling the id4 the most important vehicle since the launch of the beatle, and it’s really apparent that the company has put a lot of effort into making that true.
The company has a legacy in the us that it wants to maintain and a lot of baggage to overcome. Unfortunately, the id4 is a really strong contender in a year. That’S going to be overloaded with electric crossovers, but if price is any indicator, it’s going to be an uphill battle to make sure that volkswagen’s battery-powered crossover crosses over into the mainstream. Hey thanks for watching. If you want to see more stuff about electric vehicles, we just did a video about all the electric vehicles that are coming out this year. Please check it out.
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