The cheapest VW ID.3 costs under £30,000

Until now the only VW ID.3 you’ve been able to order in Britain has been a special ‘1st Edition’ model costing a chunky £35,215. Now, about a month after those first cars arrived in the UK, VW is about to start taking orders for regular ID.3s. Which is good news, because it means they’re about to get way cheaper.

There are seven different models in the ID.3 line-up, with prices starting at £29,990 for the entry-level (for now) ‘Life’ and rising to £39,290 for the fully-loaded ‘Tour’ (both including the Gov’s £3,000 plug-in car grant).

Six of those models, including the Life, get the same 58kWh battery as the 1st Edition for around 260 miles of range, but the Tour gets a 77kWh battery and up to 336 miles of range. All have the same 201bhp motor.

ID.3s with a 45kWh battery and less powerful motor will be available next year, meaning VW’s new EV will get cheaper still.

All ID.3s get LED headlights, adaptive cruise control, parking sensors, a 10-inch touchscreen with voice control and over-the-air-updates and wheels no smaller than 18-inches across.

The seven specs, for which orders open next week and deliveries are expected from next month, are differentiated by the option packs with which they’re equipped as standard. There are five packs – Design, Infotainment, Comfort, Assistance and Sport – and ‘Plus’ versions of each.

So Life cars get the Infotainment and Comfort packages. Business adds the Assistance and Design packages. Family is the same as Business, but the Design and Comfort packages are upgraded to ‘Plus’ spec. And so-on. The Max and Tour models get pretty much everything.

Context? Not that it matters, because everyone pays monthly nowadays, but the Hyundai Kona Electric, which we rate very highly, costs between £30,150 and £38,500. The Nissan Leaf, which we rate, erm, less highly, costs between £26,845 and £36,395. The smaller Renault Zoe costs from £26,995 to just under £30k. A base-model Tesla Model 3 starts at £40,490.

Click here to read our review of the VW ID.3, and here for a list of our favourite electric cars.