FRESH NEW IDENTITY

VW is an evolution rather than a revolution

EVERY time I contemplate anything in the recent past, and think, that must be two years ago, I forget about the lost years of the pandemic, and realise it actually was four or five years.

It happened again this week when I sat into the facelifted Volkswagen ID.3, and thought it seemed a bit soon for the design to be gussied up.

Then I remembered I first saw the car at the IAA motor show in Frankfurt in 2019, so four years it is.

As for the facelift, Volkswagen itself is talking about it as a second-generation model, but the tweaks are minimal — to the naked eye anyway. There’s a new front bumper and enlarged air intakes, new light signatures front and rear, new alloy wheels, upholstery enhancement in the cabin, a higher proportion of recycled materials, a larger infotainment screen, at 12in, and a new computer system.

The electric battery options and motor remain the same though, so there are no perceptible differences beyond the cosmetic. My test car was the Pro S model, which totes the bigger 77kWh battery, allowing for range of up to 527km, compared with the 58kWh battery, with range of 426km. The simple answer to which of the two you need is, the former if longer journeys are a regular part of your driving needs, the latter if pretty much all you need is an urban runaround. In that scenario, you easily could confine yourself to fully charging the car once a week.

The bigger battery brings great peace of mind, it has to be said. Over the course of a week, the charge percentage barely dropped at all in local driving, and while power consumption averaged 17.8kWh, higher than the WLTP number of 15.4kWh, it also included around 90km of motorway driving at 120kph on cruise control. That’s pretty good for an EV, especially since the bigger wheels here, 20-inch, also have an impact on range. Talking of wheels, these Sanya designs are divisive, and some people seem to hate them.

Not me. They look like the opening doors on a pressure chamber on a spaceship, and I’m down with that. In any case, you’d barely notice them at all when the car comes in this colour, dark olivine green metallic. Honestly, it really is one of the more attractive finishes I’ve seen on a car, constantly changing depending on the light. Under cloud, it looks deep and rich, while in strong sunshine, it leaps to vibrant life.

Sometimes, you see an individual carmaker’s colour and think, well, it works here on a C-segment hatch or compact crossover, but it wouldn’t work on an executive saloon. In this case, I reckon the colour would enhance any car, because it’s genuinely delicious.

As it happens, production of the ID.3, and its cousin the CUPRA Born I reviewed last week, has been suspended for a fortnight because of weakening demand, and I wonder if that’s because people are buying the smaller-battery version of the ID.4 rather than the bigger battery version of the ID.3.

Both are fine cars, but for me, the ID.3 is the more compelling drive, because its compact proportions make it feel much more like a driver’s car. It doesn’t have Golf levels of precision in the handling, but it’s still earnest and accurate, and a great deal of fun when you’re behind the wheel.

It’s very comfortable inside too, and particularly attractive at night, when the ambient lighting gives it a very calming feeling that also seems to even out the focus of the eyes when the interior and exterior lighting have lower contrast, without distraction.

As always, the biggest barrier is price. The Pro model with 58kWh battery costs €40,813 on the road, and this Pro S, with the 77kWh battery, costs a tasty €49,580, both prices net of the €3,500 SEAI grant and VRT relief.

My test car came with optional extras too, including those wheels, and exterior and Assistance Plus packages that brought the total to €56,445. That’s a lot of money for a car less than 4.3 metres long, with a 385-litre boot, and with a 0-100kph sprint of 7.9 seconds, which for an EV is adequate without being sparkling.

There is a lot of kit onboard, but some of it is maddening, not least the finger-slide controls on the infotainment unit. Nonetheless, the ID.3, whether mere facelift or true second generation, certainly has evolved, and when it carries the bigger battery, you’ll evolve too, into less of a range worrier!