Driving the electric Passat - VW ID7 Tourer REVIEW
Is this here worthy to be called the electric Passat? We're going to find out here today with Thomas and Autogefühl in 4K, full screen, full length. Let's go with the VW ID.7, now as the ID.7 Tourer, the estate version, and since the Passat is only available as estate anymore, this is basically then the electric replacement for the Passat.
Of course, the Passat will still run as petrol and plug-in hybrid in the new generation. We've recently reviewed that and we're going to check out if it's really also a suitable one on the electric side. And also take a look at the video description or the pinned comment. I have configured an ID.7 for you as I would actually configure it. Stonewashed Blue is the vehicle color from the exterior and I tried to make the shirt fit for it once again.
The light signature is pretty cool. It goes all the way through right here. These here are the optional IQ light, matrix LED, and then you also have a very nice welcome and goodbye signature, both front and the rear when you start up the vehicle, when you approach it, there is this, you know, keyless entry function available when you approach the vehicle or when you leave the vehicle and you're always being greeted by that. It's actually a quite cool feature, definitely.
Then, you have this relatively short front hood. Design-wise, of course, always a problem for electric vehicles. Then again, you can make more use of the interior space, which will be a huge factor, soon going to show that to you.
19-inch wheels, 20-inch, 21-inch, also possible this here in the middle, 20-inch, and I think visually they make a good appearance, don't they? Tell me in the comments. The length here is 4 meters 96 or 195 inches, so that is substantial and you can even size-wise compare it to a BMW i5 Touring, for example. Also, some remarks coming to that later on when we take a look at the trunk and so on. Optionally, you can get, as we used to from the Volkswagen AG, you can get the DCC, Dynamic Chassis Control, that's the adaptive suspension, and in our driving part, on the German Autobahn, where we also go high speed, acceleration, and so on, we're going to take a deep look into that as well. Then, this model here is rear-wheel drive, 6.7 seconds in the acceleration figure, not too quick if you, for example, compare it to a Tesla Model 3, which is definitely quicker, already in the standard version.
You can also get an all-wheel drive version. In Europe, they market it as GTX, then with some black accentuations in the front and so on, and this one is a little bit more than a second quicker than in the acceleration because it gets an additional electric motor also in the front. You also get two battery sizes: either 77 kilowatt hours net or 86 kilowatt hours net. So, I think it's a little bit strange decision because there's not so much distance, not such a huge gap between these battery sizes. I think they should have just gone like one battery size and that's it and, yeah, I think for the customer, better the bigger one because, yeah, it's just giving you more range. We also do an extensive range test and so on and later tell you more about the real world figures, and we never exaggerate these figures try to be more realistic. And
talking about this change. Oh, by the way here the light signature, so after a while it turns off and then only the outside is visible, but this also has this very interesting layer design. And you know see when I turn on the ignition, then you can see...
There we go, because that ignition turns off itself after a while, and then I activate the daytime running light once again, then also this middle part is being active, and that is also a really, really cool thing, right? So, visually, as they play with the light signatures, that looks pretty, pretty cool. And also, even more so when you hit the turning indicators like that. There we go. This has also this cascading style and it looks especially impressive then here on the outside part.
And now a first driving impression, driving because I want to show you something very interesting, the turning circle, 10.9 meters with the rear-wheel-drive only version, 12.3 meters, it would be with the all-wheel drive version.
Hmm. So it is reduced and that's why the rear-wheel drive version has a big advantage. Look at that. You can literally see already in your front how much these front wheels turn in and it is a long vehicle, but it feels like it would be turning on standstill and that is amazing.
I can also show you here to the other side. There we go. Once again, you see the see the wheels there, and I also actually feel it on the steering wheel, because you can basically turn the steering wheel one more time around in comparison to other vehicles, and yes, if you have driven a smaller car or something, you might think parking in and out is a problem or so, but actually with this vehicle here, I can better park in and out and get around tight corners than with some way, way shorter cars because of how steep, these wheels can turn in, look at that, and that is a turning circle of a way smaller car actually without even having a rear axle steering. Does it have a frunk? Oh, no, frunkie. No, frunky boy. Yeah, that's maybe a little bit disappointing, but I think the hood here in the front is relatively short at least so they don't waste too much space.
Towing, by the way, is also available, 1.2 tons for the rear-wheel drive model, 1.4 tons for the all-wheel drive model, so not too much, but towing with an electric vehicle is at least long-range, you know, maybe not the best idea because it just, you know, this costs so much efficiency and so on. The DC charging peaks, 175 kilowatt for the small battery, 200 kilowatt for the big battery and the charging flap is right here. There we go.
It opens from the lower part, and I think it's actually a good solution because then you can turn the cable around from both sides. We go 10 to 80% state of charge in less than 30 minutes and it scores some quite good charging curve figures and so on. So, I'm overall happy with that. Yeah, and I think this charging flap, we haven't seen that so often on the market here actually, but I think it's definitely a clever idea and I mean just to, yeah, just to manual. There we go. Just to do it manually, I think, is also a good decision.
Recently, we've seen with the Audi Q6 e-tron, when it's just electronic and it takes ages to open and close again, it might potentially fail and so on. So, why not go for this solution in here? Obviously, here with the estate, with the Tourer, the trunk is very important. And you can see here when it's open, the hazard lights, they go further like this, so it's also a clever spec overall here. Press once, press twice, it's manual though. 545 liters that is in this setup here is actually a little bit less than, for example, the BMW i5 Touring, but now when you come around, I can show you something very interesting because now I show you the so-called cargo position here, fold down this here, and then you move up, this back part again like this, you see it's steeper than in comparison to here. And the thing is you cannot
do it like freely, you know, so you have to use this lever there. And then it jumps to 605 liters from the other side and suddenly then it's bigger in the liter figure than the i5 Touring. And here we can see now the effect of the cargo position. This is without, so there's no space, and then, here, this is the cargo position. You have more space, and this, indeed, gives you so much more in this liter figure here, however.
Yeah, not sure if this is the most usable feature. What do you think about this? However, more or better in the practicality is here that we can unlock the seats no matter if the cargo position is active or not from here. Also, take out, oh, sorry, still open.
There we go. So, and then we have this full length here. If you want to move it further down, by the way, well, moving the head restraints up here, you can see this brings it a little bit there. You can see a difference between head restraint up and head restraint down. So, this is like... This kind of difference. Ski
hatch is also available and now to the measurements here the width is a meter or 40 inches approximately, the normal length here is like 1 meters and 5 or 41 inches. And to the driver's seat as we would be driving. There we go.
It's like 119 meters or 74 inches. Last but not least, 76 centimeters or 26 inches. Oh, by the way, underneath, charging cable. So, there's some space you can also take down or take away this whole thing. Second step underneath, even more a little bit space.
Then we have an interesting side net here, so this is like closed and then you can pull this cute strap here and it's a little bit opened like this. Interesting mechanism, right? Okay, and talked about towing here, you could pull this lever, then it's like semi-automatic like this, and once again, press it and you can fold it in again. This is the key fob, all high gloss black. Yeah, not my favorite, honestly.
Then here, the door, so you have some kind of feedback at the back part. Closing sound. In the front is solid. We've heard some better, but it's already quite good, I have to say. In the rear, it's actually even more decent. We had that quite often now that the rear door closing sound is actually even better.
Then, inside of the doors, nice soft touch on the top part, also here a high-grade leatherette. Ambient lighting integration looks cool, even looks cooler, of course, at night than microfiber inserts here. And you also have a felt covering at the inside of the doors, yeah, BMW doesn't have that anymore, for example, in the i5 Touring, which is comparable in size.
Steering wheel with the #CapacitiveBS buttons, they are backlit at least, but still sometimes you press them accidentally. And then you get base fabric seats in the US for the ID.7 sedan, you also get leatherette, but here there's the optional ErgoActive seat with microfiber, looks really cool, feels really nicely, and it also has the memory function. And here this lower part you can also make a little bit longer than for the longer legs. And with 180... You can... Just to see where it's coming from it really has a seat sensor.
This is going to be a meme. Someone's going to create like an extra video of that. I see it coming. Yeah, sometimes when you move around in the vehicle, you like to start, ah, I'm driven so, yeah. Okay, back to the video.
Yeah, looking for a VW with seat ring. So, here, one eighty... one eighty... No, I'm totally confused. 189 cm, 6'2",... Stonewashed. And blue eyes. All grey-blue eyes.
Okay, we'll start with the review once again. Here, then the steering wheel, up and down and out, manual, but smooth process. Shifting here, switch gears in the front: D, B for the recuperation, then you have a stronger recuperation. However, it's each time we set it to D again when you start up the vehicle.
Reverse like this. I think the comfort is all really good. So, and this vehicle will be most about the comfort. Cockpit overview. You have a soft leatherette right here. Also, the dashboard has a structure and a somewhat soft touch. And
here, once again, the ambient lighting integration. Glove box falls down in a smooth way, also good closing sound. Really clean everywhere here, just the button in here for the hazard lights or turning indicators. Sorry, just for the hazard lights, turning indicators are, of course, normally here. And not on the steering wheel like with the Model 3. Then you always have this 15-inch screen, good to have just that very one size, and they have really worked on the software.
You know that for the past years, VW has been a software fail itself, you know, and the ID models now, the new ones, they get new hardware, new software, and so far, we were actually quite happy with that. It can still be better, but it's the best iteration we have seen yet. And, also, EV-specific, here you can, for example, set the charging limit if you like. You can also start the battery heating right now, for example, even without putting something in the GPS like a charging station. So, it's also good when you know like a fast charging station nearby which you always use and then you just manual start the battery heating.
That's also good. The GPS also calculates the charging stop and so on. This is all possible. The sliders here for the temperature are, by the way, backlit. Then, the middle console here with this matte black atmosphere, I really like that.
That's cool. Only here, these rubber lips, they already feel cheap right now. This is one of the small letdowns here in the interior. Then, you can slide this here open.
In the front part, you have inductive charging pad with cooling holes, two USB-C chargers. These cup holders here are also adaptive. You could also theoretically take them out if you like, like this. So, all actually spacious, clean here underneath. We have even more space.
You can store a lot of things. They end in this split opening here. With even more space underneath, for all the clutter you need to hide from the viewers while shooting. And there we go. Awesome. So, I'm really actually very happy with the interior build quality and with 189, 6'2".
Did I show the headroom yet? Yeah, maybe not from this perspective, but it's really good. And here, touch the lights, you just press it here like this, and then the electrochrome roof, I can even show you that you do that better when we're sitting in the rear very soon. But I'm actually very happy with the cockpit. Interesting is, of course, what they've done here with the instruments and the head-up display and so on.
So, we have the steering wheel right here, then really tiny digital instruments, but, I mean, you see the speed there and so on, does the job, and then you have this head-up display, also with augmented reality functions, and you can also switch the views, the details in there, for example. When you look over right here, usually you use the sliders here for the temperature, if you click in there, you can also do that like this. That would also be possible. Interesting always here the driving modes. They can also select DCC setup and also individual and here really individually set your DCC settings for example.
And assistance systems you can also easily deactivate some of those. And very important if you go to the rear-view camera, then settings I would actually here deactivate maneuver braking, because when you're closing into a pole or something suddenly it's it puts in the emergency braking and you get back problems by that, however it's always reset then with each startup. Yeah, it needs to be less sensitive, definitely. And everyone was waiting for Lea to show you also some features.
I'm also waiting for this part in the editing, actually, because she's just so much more beautiful to look at than I am, actually. So, there we go. What feature did you find for us now? The pause and play button. Ah, the pause and play button here. So, here are the pedals.
Yeah, they get dirty naturally, but pause and play. We already know it from the ID.3, but I think it's always a lovely detail to do some, yeah, some nice details like that.
Rear compartment, soft touch here on the top part, Harman Kardon sound system, nice integration also here with the rear door handles, ambient lighting also then here, then microfiber in this very trim and even here the fabric covering of the inside of the rear doors and if you then ask me, compared to an i5 Touring, I really like the i5 Touring. It drives really well, but the quality here is exceptional. Got a lot of legroom right here. I love that. So much space in the rear compartment here, and it's very comfortable as well. The bench here is falling behind a lot, and some do like that.
Some say it takes weight off the lower part because it's more than going to the back. Some do not like that. I'm, yeah, I'm a little mixed about that, but, however, I think it's still good in comfort and, yeah, since you have so much space and then you can also take a look here at the panoramic roof, of course, which has this electrochrome function and when we activate the, there we go, the ignition, this is then transparent, this then, there we go, the differences, that looks really cool, right? So, that's nice. Yes, we can switch that on.
I mean, I remember these days where vehicles were not beeping all over the place, and now when you open the door, open and beep, beep, beep here, you exceed the speed by one kilometer an hour, beep, beep, everything is always beeping, and here it's not even worse, you know, there are worse cars with beeping stuff, but yeah, I just want to comment on that. Maybe you think so as well. Then for ISOFIX and children and so on here in outside seats, you can fold these here open, then also Top Tether on the front seat, and there's even an ISOFIX here for the passenger seat, also possible. Then here we have a climate unit for the rear passengers even with seat heating, two USB-C chargers down there, and you can see using the EV platform, flat floor, so, that also creates a spacious feeling and we have and then with the ErgoActive trim also these beautiful microfiber seats for the rear part.
Then, cup holders are not adaptive though. This is then here the ski hatch where you can also reach through the rear. And the headroom... with 189, 6'2", still have some headroom left, and here, of course, the Tourer has a slight advantage because it just carries on like here, but it's not that the ID.7 Sedan would have a major problem there or something like that. In this case, when you sit in the rear, you can, of course, even make more use of this panoramic roof, can just see that actually even better. Sport mode.
So, that was 170 kilometers an hour. We almost reached top speed on that short strip there. Pretty nice. I mean, this is the rear-wheel drive only version, 6.7 seconds. it's the acceleration figure here with the estate version, 6.6 would be with the sedan, so not a big difference.
Actually, this one here, slightly worse CD value. Yeah, but that won't make a huge difference, actually, as for the acceleration. Little bit maybe with the efficiency and so on, but it accelerates very nicely definitely, and as I explained earlier, I would still go with the rear-wheel-drive version although you don't have the best performance in comparison to the all-wheel-drive version because that turning circle is just so much narrower with this 10.9 meters in comparison to the
all-wheel-drive version, and that helps you really a lot in everyday driving definitely. Normal motorway speeds here. Not only German ones, like 120, 130 kilometers an hour, 70, 80 miles an hour, it's reasonably silent, so good noise insulation so far. The only thing is, I mean, when the road is all the way good, it's fine. But when there are some, especially when you go over cobblestones or something like that, or something which has like, you know, a lot of, like a short pattern on the road, then you feel like this booming noise, you know, from, I don't know, maybe from the wheels or something.
We have the 20-inch wheels mounted here, and we probably would recommend you to stick with the 19-inch wheels. Maybe that reduces this booming noise. It's not audible, though, like on the motorway or when you have straight road. Then now from 100 kilometers, now let's accelerate out again. 140.
It's a nice punch, but it's definitely enough. Yes, the Tesla Model 3, even in the base version, standard range version, is quicker. Not exactly a full second, but almost. So you feel that the Tesla Model 3 has better performance there. Yeah, and it still makes sense to compare it to a Tesla Model 3 as I explained earlier for various reasons. But overall, it feels really nice on the motorway in the sport mode, the DCC, which is also equipped here with our vehicle, does a good job, you know, 150 kilometers an hour.
It has a very smooth feeling of the whole vehicle. The whole driving experience is super, super smooth. That's the main characteristic about this vehicle. Still here at 150, I don't need to raise my voice that much. I'm going to do a lane change here in sport mode.
It's not the stiffest suspension, but still, this one is a very good compromise of comfort and sportiness. So, here, the suspension is definitely better than the one of the Tesla Model 3. Comfort? It feels a little bit softer, especially from the steering wheel, but it doesn't shake up much either. So, my favorite setting is always here, individual, and then I set it here, the DCC, to the most comfortable setting, but the steering to sport, so I have best suspension comfort.
At the same time, the steering is a little bit, yeah, with more resistance. That is definitely my favorite setting here, but you can also individualize that. So, it feels really nice here on the motorway together with the comfort of the good seats. It is a very, very good motorway or Autobahn cruiser.
It's always interesting, by the way, to also look at the life consumption data, which we see right here displayed, and the long-term consumption here, this one always 89 kilowatt hours and 100 kilometers, so like 3.3, 3.5, between three and three and a half miles per kilowatt hour. So that would here mean for this one here, a range, a real world range of 400 kilometers or 250 miles with a small battery, or 450 kilometers or 280 miles for the bigger battery version, which will also be available. Though it's kind of strange that they have this very small gap between the two battery versions right there.
You can see here that when I hold the speed here at 120 kilometers an hour, it's always in that region, so this consumption is indeed something you can score with 100 to 120 kilometers an hour, so it is also realistic motorway consumption. The efficiency will be better if you have more city traffic inbound there or some countryside roads, then you can also do some 16 kilowatt hour figures on 100 kilometer is more like four miles per kilowatt hour, so that is also possible, but I rather... you know, go for the less optimistic choice or include more motorway, because this vehicle will also be driven a lot on the motorway. It is the replacement of the electric Passat. So, it is the electric replacement of the Passat.
That's the way. This is the way. And I really feel here in the driving, since it's so smooth and we recently did have the Passat and tested it on the very same route, now I activated something here with the capacitive buttons. #CapacitiveBS. Yeah, that's always the thing you sometimes hit it. And definitely it is a very proper replacement of the Passat in the electric form.
Actually, when I'm driving it right now, I mean, could you tell if it's a Passat or an ID.7? They are very similar, right? So Lea agrees. It's always great to have the impression of the passenger, but do you like it more than the Passat, or do you like the Passat more? Maybe this one. This one? Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it adds... Because it's so silent, I like that, yeah. Silent, and it adds, like, this layer of smoothness, actually.
Here, by the way, this layer, yeah. Of smoothness. Ah, this is great here. As combination, feels really nice. Can you grab the Serie 2? Yeah, actually just yesterday we were driving, like my grandpa and my grandma, they're both more than 90 years old and they were really excited about this vehicle, said like drive so smooth and everything in the roof and yeah, so they love the experience, also driving in the rear, that was also a really good test.
Now we can go once more in the Sport mode here, accelerate it out, see, there's space. Oh, interesting, an IONIQ 5 behind us with a trailer. From the Netherlands, of course. So, here we go.
Sometimes you have to be patient, but then you can also see the blind spot monitor here integrated in the side mirror. Good integration, actually very visible. Now, this Audi pass there.
And there's our spot. Go, acceleration. Yeah, definitely more than enough for the German Autobahn as well. Very nice, here now it gets really bumpy, but also in the sport mode, very well done. So, suspension is great and when you are in this comfort mode or in my individual mode, then you really have this kind of floaty feeling, although it's not an air suspension. So, yeah, this is really, really good suspension system.
I love that. The steering feel, progressive steering feel is also good, especially when you have it set to the sporty mode. So, I'm definitely really excited about the whole driving experience.
As I said, the only thing is we don't hear it right now, but when you have like this, you know, structure on the road, let's say, like when it's a little bit segmented, this booming noise. They really have to work on that, but I haven't driven one with 19-inch wheels yet, I think maybe it could solve the problem. So, if you already have an ID.7 at home and you have 19-inch wheels, tell me if you did experience this booming noise, like this low frequency, like... That
was impressive, right? It's very realistic. Yeah, so I do experience it in this one here. Um, that's the only thing really on the dislike on the driving experience side. Yeah, but it really feels like really grown up elaborated, and even if you compare the premium competitors like a BMW i5 or Mercedes EQE or something like that. I mean lengthwise it does fit.
It very well can keep up with these in the it feels like a premium vehicle almost like a luxury vehicle in in the driving experience because of the smoothness. We like that. Then system systems set it here Travel Assist.
And you can also pick the individual modes that the cruise control speed limiter or than the Travel Assist where you have like everything combined also keeping the car in the lane. Let's see how smooth it is. So now moves to the central. Also 100 detected, now it decreases the speed. It should actually.
Ah, now it detected 120. Okay, that's fine. So then here you see, although the motorway is slightly bent, keeps it centralized. Blind spot monitor once again. So also very elaborated assistance systems. Minus the one thing I told you earlier in the interior part, where I have this parking sensor, which is just yeah, just too sensitive actually and I really don't like that that you're being interfered that much in that case.
Now we're going to the last sporty test. This will be super exciting. So, usually I'm driving even with sporty vehicles this corner here with like with 100 or 90 or something and here I'm really confident going in. There's also a bump in the corner where the car can be like set sideways but... It really is very nicely planted on the road.
That's cool. Wow! So, sporty but yet smooth driving experience. It really feels awesome. So, just driving-wise, a great vehicle. And if you compare it once again to the Tesla Model 3, yes, a little bit less efficient.
Battery size, yeah, depends on what version you compare it to. But from the comfort of the suspension, better than the Model 3. Yet again, the Model 3, I feel, I mean, the seats are also very awesome.
They're both really good, you know. So, these are both in an excellent stage. So, it always has pros and cons, definitely. That's why we are also presenting these vehicles in that way.
But, yeah, very well done from the driving experience. Pricing, €55,000 starts approximately in Germany as it stands here right now, rear-wheel drive, small battery, but with some extras like this electrochrome roof and so on and this comfort package for the interior with the microfiber seat, €72,000. It's not cheap at all and at the moment, the leasing rates are also not that good. So, if you compare it price-wise, for example, in the purchase price against the Tesla Model 3, it is way more expensive. However, it's also larger, has a better trunk capacity and so on, especially here as the Tourer. I still feel you can compare it to a Tesla Model 3 because people think about, hey, I want to do like, you know, like a low seating efficient electric vehicle and what's on the market, and it is always that the benchmark is Tesla at the moment still, especially in Europe and Northern America.
As the Model 3, you know, as the low sitting vehicle and as the SUV, the Model Y. They are also the most sold cars and the most sold, yeah, most sold car overall in most of the Model Y and the most sold EVs in this segment each. That's why I can still think you can compare it and I would also compare it as a, you know, as a personal customer choice. So, the price is at this moment the biggest problem for this vehicle, I feel. It is premium, it does offer a lot, but then again, there are also cheaper alternatives. That's the thing really about the ID.7.
The car itself is actually great. It drives exceptionally well. We have to, you know, take a look at this booming sound still at lower speeds when they're like cobblestones and that's the only negative things, you know, we realized here, but everything else, it was really superb in the driving, great comfort, great motorway riding and so on. So, it would definitely be among my hit list in the EV segment. If you can get, for example, a decent leasing rate and so on.
As the estate, it's a little bit less efficient if you compare it to the sedan. I think you can live with that if you then get this extra space and so on. However, then you have to say, since the ID.7 sedan is this fastback style opening, is already so great in the usability, then you might say, hey, I prefer the looks, for example, and I don't lose too much for the flexibility and so on, then I can also maybe stay with the sedan version. And rear-wheel drive, I think is definitely a great idea because of that very, very narrow turning circle, so I would actually keep it with that. Is it an electric Passat? Or let's say a replacement if you go electric for your Passat? Definitely it is from the comfort, from the whole experience.
It comes very, very close to the Passat. It's even more silent because of this electric factor. The only thing is, yeah, the Passat with the combustion engine inside has just double the range than this one has, efficiency, rear-world range, and so on. We talked about it in the driving part. We also have linked it here with a special time code if you have missed, then maybe scroll back to that segment.
And now, if you want to compare the Passat, do it right now or then the Tesla Model 3.
2024-07-18 20:29
