This is the new Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer, a rear-wheel-drive electric estate

This is the new Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer, and the headline numbers are 605 and 1,714. These are not, sadly, its performance in horsepowers (paging the ID.7 GTX) but instead the plush new estate’s load carrying abilities with the rear seats up and with them folded down.

Wait, come back! Admittedly boot space is hardly the most exciting metric, but it’s the most important one for a car built entirely to allow a “very high load capacity”. In 2024’s SUV-heavy marketplace, feels a bit retro to welcome a new, practical, big-booted (electric) estate.

It joins a growing list of e-estates, of course, and while the load space isn’t quite up there with the traditional Mercedes-Benz E-Class – barring a Tardis, not much is, to be fair – those figures are still impressive. Stick on the optional roof box and you get an additional 460-litres of space, and VW tells us the new ID.7 Tourer offers a near two-metre-long load area when fully deployed. Good times.

Plenty of power to deploy, too. The ID.7 Tourer shares everything with the saloon, including its 282bhp, rear-wheel-drive powertrain. Two variants will be available on launch, the Tourer Pro and Pro S. Both get the same ‘APP550’ e-drive system, but the former makes do with an 82kWh battery (77kWh net), while the Pro S will get a 91kWh (86kWh net) battery. That car, says VW, gets a claimed range of 426 miles.

Charging? The 77kWh battery can go from 10-80 per cent in 28 minutes on a fast charge, the bigger battery “in significantly less than 30 minutes”. Enough time to admire the elongated silhouette. Barring the big new boot, the Tourer’s dimensions are exactly the same as the ID.7 saloon. Same face, of course, rising up through the ID.7’s aero-honed body to the taller, upright rear. A good, clean design.

The same mixed-bag interior, however. Carrying over the ID.7 saloon’s hard points means carrying over the ID.7 saloon’s interior. There’s the same massive 15in free-standing touchscreen (click here to find out what it’s like in the saloon), though the Tourer gets an upgraded augmented reality head-up display.

And by ‘upgraded’, VW says you can now get Apple CarPlay or Android Auto nav directions integrated into this HUD, while the “appearance of AR functions has been significantly upgraded”. There’s ChatGPT onboard, the IDA voice assistant, a ‘Wellness’ app, and of course a plethora of driver assists.

“The new ID.7 Tourer perfectly rounds off our offering in the upper mid-sized class,” said VW board member of management Imelda Labbé. “It is particularly attractive for frequent drivers and business customers thanks to its generous space and long ranges.”

What’ll be even more attractive? An ID.7 Tourer GTX…