Volkswagen ID.7 long term review

Lucky number 7

The ID.7 has arrived! I’m very excited about this car, which I’ll be running for a few months. I have my suspicions that this may be something of an unsung hero in the electric car market, as I drove it just before it was launched in 2023 and absolutely loved how comfortable and refined it was. It also felt like a big jump up in interior quality for any VW ID product, and definitely better on that front than the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Tesla Model 3 that are its closest rivals. 

But you need to live with a car, and really do some big miles in it, to find out if it really is the best electric car that Volkswagen makes – so, here we are. 

It arrived at the beginning of summer, and after an initial few weeks it’s living up to expectations on the comfort and efficiency front. I’m seeing 4.2 miles/kWh without even trying, despite that being mostly on motorway miles. That’s good for a real-world range of 323 miles, and I’ve also seen the efficiency creep up to 4.5 miles when I’ve been on shorter journeys around the New Forest, where I live - and where there are a lot of 40mph limits that are mostly quite free-flowing, which is pretty ideal for electric car efficiency. That adds up to a slower-speed range of 346 miles. Not bad! I haven’t even needed to use a public charger, yet… 

Oh, yes. Meant to mention that this is a 77kWh VW ID.7 Pro Match, which is the only trim you can get on the ID.7, but you can opt for a bigger 86kWh battery that gets a WLTP range of 436 miles. Or there’s the sporty GTX, too. 

Our test car does have the ‘Exterior Pack Plus’, which comes with the panoramic roof that can be switched between clear or opaque, and also adds adaptive suspension, for £2,100. It also has the Interior Pack Plus, at £2,000 for a Harman Kardon sound system, ventilated front seats with massage function, and heated seats in the back, too. The 20-inch Montreal alloys are a £480 option, but the Aquamarine Blue paint with contrasting black roof is standard.     

Electrifying the team

Took the ID.7 up to the Electrifying team’s HQ for a ‘team day’, which is what we call it when we all get together to eat cake, and discuss how much Ginny has paid for a loaf of bread from her local farm shop. Sometimes we make a video and write some stuff, too, but that’s very much secondary to cake and snacks.

The rest of the team had a chance to take it up the road. Suffice to say that they all loved it. Notably, it was the refinement that seemed to make a lasting impression. Mike was particularly impressed that you didn’t hear the grit being kicked up, while Ginny also mentioned that it was really quiet and also handled better than she’d expected. I’d add that our test car has the Dynamic Chassis Control adaptive suspension and drive modes, and I’ve not tried the ID.7 without that… So I can’t speak for whether the standard car hits quite the same comfy-yet-confident character.

Those pesky touch-sensitive buttons…

Okay, okay. I genuinely haven’t had much to complain about with the ID.7 in the first few weeks. In fact, to be honest, I’m boring all my friends and acquaintances with talking about how much I love it. But if I have to find something to complain about, it’s the touch-sensitive buttons. There are too many of them, and they’re not as easy to use as proper buttons. They just aren’t. And it really annoys me that you have to hit a button on the driver’s door to switch between rear window control and front window control. Annoying! I’ve already managed to drop the wrong window a couple of times. 

Oh, and while I’m on a roll with stuff that annoys me, why on earth hasn’t VW managed to get Vehicle-to-Load charging in its cars, yet? This car feels so top notch in terms of its tech, and then you realise that an MG4 gets V2L as standard, and this doesn’t have it at all? I mean, what’s that about? Oh, and the heat pump. A heat pump is a £1050 option. It’s not on our test car, and I’ve not missed it so far, but our time with the VW is all in summer conditions… 

Still, we’ve got a couple of big weekends planned in the ID.7, so I’ll be reporting back on how it stacks up as a family wagon. 

​Click for report 2​