Volkswagen ID.7 review

It’s generally a very relaxed, refined and quiet big car. Tyre and wind noise are impressively subdued.

We tested versions with and without the optional DCC adaptive dampers, which are part of a £1,000 pack with advanced lighting. The system is a worthwhile extra, not because the sport mode much improves steering response or high-speed control, but because the comfort mode eases the ride. If you shove the on-screen DCC slider too far towards the sport extremity of its scale, the car's rear end starts to thump.

Even without DCC, the ID.7 keeps its mass well under control. Yet it always rides far more comfortably than the rival Tesla or BYD.

But any fun?

It's easy to guide accurately. The steering is precise (more so than some 'sporty' EVs including the Ford Mustang Mach-E or Kia EV6) and well-weighted, if numb of road feel. You can feel the Pro cars are RWD: you're not going to be doing skids, but it does resist understeer under power and won't scrabble for traction.

The suspension is fluent, and you're not knocked off course by bumps. So you can thread a neat line down a bumpy curvy road, and subtly feel the car working under you. Which is a much nicer sensation than in the more leaden and floaty ID.4 or stiff-legged Tesla Model 3.

It’s electric, so it must be quick right?

It’s refreshing that the ID.7 doesn’t actually chase bonkers power and acceleration figures. We say 282bhp is plenty for a car such as this, and a 0-62mph time of 6.5 seconds means it feels brisk but not overly rapid. The low drag helps on motorways: it doesn't feel like it's hitting a wall at 70mph. Indeed, when you do lift off at that speed, it glides onward holding its momentum well.

Despite our advice, VW has gone ahead and built a faster one anyway: the GTX adds a front motor into the mix for AWD and grand totals of 335bhp and 402lb ft of torque, making it more than a second quicker to 62mph than the RWD version. Sigh.

The extra potency is undeniably useful on the motorway but the only other upgrades are cosmetic, so in carrying another 100kg over the Pro S model with the same battery, it has to heave itself around corners like a rhino wearing lead boots.

The GTX isn't a performance car - got it. What about the brakes and regeneration on the RWD one?

Despite having built so many EV models, VW still hasn't got the brake feel quite right. It's a tad light and unprogressive. Note that maximum regeneration isn't very strong: as it's a rear-motor car, too much braking on the rear wheels alone could upset it.

There are no regen paddles, but just a B position in the main drive selector, keeping things simple. If you turn on the 'efficiency assistant' on the drive assist menu, it adaptively takes info from the radar and navigation and increases regeneration if the car in front slows down, or you're approaching a junction. Works well.

On major roads you’ll also be able to use VW’s Travel Assist, which is an industry-norm system of active cruise and lane centring. It does the lane centring part better than most, even in quite tight curves.

A new feature is ‘assisted lane changes’. If you’re travelling on a motorway at speed and the system decides that a lane change is safe, all you need to do in theory is indicate and the car will manoeuvre for you. But if you hold the wheel tightly it thinks you want to take back control, and if you hold it too loosely it thinks you've lost concentration. In either case it aborts the attempt.

Do the range numbers stack up?

Reminder: the entry-level Pro promises 380 miles, the mid-spec Pro S manages 433, and the GTX a mere 357. All lab figures, all to be taken with an (un)healthy dose of salt.

In a mixed drive in the ID.7 Pro 77kWh with most of the climate functions active, we saw an average of 3.6 mi/kWh. That indicates real-world range of 277 miles. With the Pro S battery that same consumption of 3.6m/kWh takes you well clear of 300 miles, and with any sort of restraint at all you'll be at 350.

And on a motorway schlep in fair weather we pulled 3.1 mi/kWh from the GTX, indicating 270-odd miles of range. That's actually not bad, and with a lower average speed you'd probably eke that above 300. All variants get a heat pump to boost efficiency in range-obliterating temperatures.

And charging?

The 77kWh battery claims a 10-80 per cent charge in less than half an hour, provided you're at a 175kW charger. So a 150kW unit would only prolong things by a few minutes. For the bigger battery, a peak of 200kW is possible.