Volkswagen ID.5 Review

​Practicality & space:

The VW ID.5 is still a useful and spacious family SUV, despite the crossover coupe-SUV roofline. There’s enough space in the rear seats that even adults over six-foot can lounge about in comfort, although the optional (standard on the GTX) panoramic glass roof does eat into headroom a touch.

The seats split and fold flat in a 60/40 split, and there’s a through-loading hatch so that you can get your jousting stick (or other, less niche long item) through the rear seats while still keeping space for two people to sit comfortably in the rear seats. It’s a bit disappointing that the ID.5 and ID.4 don’t offer more seating versatility, as there’s nothing clever about the rear seats – they don’t slide or recline, for instance. Even so, they’re comfy and spacious. There are three pairs of Isofix in the ID.5 – two in the outer rear seats, and one in the front passenger seat.

There are good-sized door bins and central armrests for occupants in the front- and back of the ID.5, and there’s also a useful centre cubby up front, and a spot for your phone to sit while it’s wirelessly charging.

Interior & Design

The ID.5 feels decent quality inside, with contrast stitching, leatherette, ambient lighting and a good general sense of classiness and solidity. It’s not quite the feast of textures and angular design that the E-3008 is, and it’s not as sparse and button-free as the Tesla Model Y, but it hits a happy medium somewhere in between them. Ultimately, it’s a modern, fresh interior design that won’t discombobulate someone who’s coming to an electric car for the first time, but it also feels techy and up-to-date enough to keep the futurists happy.

Visibility is quite poor to the rear three-quarters, as is typical of these chunky coupe-SUV designs, but the standard parking camera and blind-spot warning go some way to making this less of a problem.

The driving position is good, with a wide range of adjustment to the steering wheel and seat, and you get adjustable lumbar support as standard.

Dashboard

There aren’t many buttons in the ID.5 – the only physical switches are on the steering wheel – so if you just want to change the air-con temperature, you have to use the voice control or the fiddly touch-sensitive slider controls that sit just beneath the screen. Which is annoying.

Still, otherwise it’s pretty straightforward how you engage Drive, Reverse or stronger brake regen’ via the steering column-mounted switch, and the big screen is perched up high where it’s easy to see at a glance. You also get a simple driver’s readout behind the steering wheel, giving a clear and refreshingly uncomplicated speed readout.

Technology & Equipment

As of the MY 2024 the Volkswagen ID.5 gets a 12.9-inch touchscreen with improved software and menu layouts that we’ve seen before on the rather excellent VW ID.7. It’s still not quite as intuitive as the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5, but it is now much easier to use than before, and is actually a fairly easy system to live with. It also has all the features you want, including wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat-nav with charger search function, Bluetooth, and a fairly accurate voice control system that learns your accent and phrases, the more you use it.

The VW ID.5 Match is very well equipped, with 19-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry, adaptive Matrix LED headlights, powered bootlid, reversing camera and parking sensors. The GTX ups that with lots of additional style extras, a 360-degree panoramic camera, as well as a standard panoramic glass roof.

Safety

Lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking, with a function that also reacts to cyclists and pedestrians as well as cars, is standard on the ID.5. However, you have to pay over £2,000 to get the full-far semi-autonomous driving package.

Assistance Package Plus, as it’s called, gives the ID.5 the ability to follow traffic ahead, change lane, adjust the speed according to the limit, and tell you if there’s a cyclist or vehicle coming when you’re parked up and about to open the door into the road. It also includes an upgrade to the ambient lighting, and brings a foot-operated function for the powered tailgate. Finally, the same package brings a semi-autonomous parking aid that even remembers how you like to park in your most-used spaces – if you like to reverse onto your driveway, for instance – and will park the car in that manner.

Euro NCAP awarded the VW ID.5 the full five stars in its crash tests, and also gave the assistance semi-autonomous systems – including the optional upgrade – four out of five stars.