Volkswagen ID.7 - long-term review

I drove the ID.7 to Jaguar’s HQ for a preview of the Type 00. You’ll be aware of it by now, of the unprecedented backlash generated by a 30-second online campaign that seemed precision-tooled to alienate, well, everybody. As ever, a lot of utter rubbish was talked by the usual suspects, although the debate did also engage more informed commentators, most of whom also thought Jaguar’s bosses have lost their collective minds.

We’ll see. But what of the car? I love it, but then I’ve always been a sucker for a crazy concept. It’s a colossal gamble for Jaguar but also asks the question about what we expect a car to be and do as the electrification age gathers momentum (and it is, despite what some people think). Maximum theatre in the Type 00’s case, as well as placing the putative owner at the centre of a whole world of ‘experiential luxury’.

VW’s ID cars are grappling with similar questions in the context of an industry-wide existential crisis. To range and infrastructural concerns we can add understandable angst about plummeting residuals. The ID.7 is the most premium and therefore most expensive ID, but it’s also easily the best resolved.

The user experience is almost entirely seamless in the manner we’re so often promised but that rarely materialises. Here’s how it works for me: get in, sync my phone via Apple CarPlay – it takes about three seconds – press the accelerator pedal. The ID.7 seems to specialise in reducing your heart rate, which in a large saloon is part of the job description.

It’s not slow and its handling is far from shabby, but as ever in an EV I’m far more interested in eking out the range than probing the outer edge of the dynamic ‘envelope’. Sure, it’s a bit sober inside, apart from some illuminated slashes in the door and dash trim. But it’s very well put together and has a nicer feeling interior than, say, the Ford Explorer to which it’s related. (Good car, that.)

And I can mostly get by with home charging, though that’s becoming more of a challenge as winter digs in. VW claims up to 380 miles WLTP, and for a week or two after it arrived the ID.7 was showing 320 on a full charge. Now it’s down to 275.

I’m planning a visit to Gridserve, whose first charging station near Braintree is just down the road from me. I was there the day it opened for business four years ago, and it now has 44 connectors (with some rated at 350kW). The ID.7 has a charging capacity of up to 175kW. I want to see how fast we can get those electrons flowing. And compare the cost of a public charger with my domestic tariff.