VW ID.3 Pro S – impressions after 2,500 km test
The Volkswagen ID.3 is by far the electric car that I had to chase after the manufacturer the most to get a test vehicle. In return, it is also the electric car with which I covered the greatest distance during the test period. After 2 weeks and almost 2,500 km, I have the feeling that I got to know the ID.3 Pro S really well.
In this video I summarize the article. I will show you functions like the AR head-up display in more detail here.
You can see from afar that the ID.3 is an electric car with a purpose design. As is typical for many electric vehicles, the shape of the vehicle is rather rounded in order to achieve good aerodynamic properties (Cd value 0.267).
The ID.3 manages to appear compact from the outside despite a lot of space in the interior. I particularly like the light signature of the ID.3.
In the interior, the ID.3 is often criticized for its supposedly cheap material quality. Personally, I think the quality is okay for an electric vehicle in this class.
The long wait for the test car was worth it, because as the Pro S model, the ID.3 is now also available with a 77 kWh battery, with a maximum range according to WLTP of 549 km. Anyone who deals with electric cars knows that the WLTP value can hardly be reached in reality, if at all.
My rule of thumb: 0.66xWLTP range specification = range in everyday life. According to this rule of thumb, the ID.3 Pro S still has a range of 349 km left.
With the ID.3 it struck me for the first time that with my rule of thumb one should also consider the standard deviation, one should also consider the standard deviation of this value. With the ID.3 Pro S, I would assume this to be approximately 50-75 km, depending on the distances you drive.
If you drive a lot on the motorway, you will achieve a range of around 300 km. If you mainly drive in the country or in the city, a range of 400km and more should not be a problem.
Long distance in the VW ID.3 Pro S – 1209 km in one day
I try to do at least one long-distance drive with all test vehicles.
With the ID.3 Pro S I did a day trip of 1,209 km and wrote down the values exactly.
I have summarized these values in the presentation. But I have the whole thing again in great detail in a Twitter thread
Let’s go to the long-distance test of the #Volkswagen # ID3 On the 930 km today I will certainly learn a lot about the car and here in this one #Thread to report.
Battery: 100%
Displayed range: 430 km
(1 / x) pic.twitter.com/8TxSwFaFZt– Mark Kreuzer (@kramkr) August 4, 2021
accompanied and worked up again on my private blog: VW ID.3 range evaluation long haul – Mark Kreuzer
I found the infotainment in the ID.3 surprisingly good. The initial catastrophic problems with the vehicle software in the ID.3 seem, in my opinion, to have clearly been overcome. I couldn’t find any bugs during my test and the system has always worked perfectly well.
When zooming in quickly on the map, it is noticeable that the built-in processing unit cannot cope with the display quickly enough. Whereby the ID.3 is based on the current – rather shameful – standard of all car manufacturers; Tesla, and the models with Android Automotive OS from Polestar and Volvo are expressly excluded here.
Another point of criticism would be the database for the navigation system. The display of restaurants in the area is nice, but relatively useless without further information. A restaurant was also shown to me on my daily route, which has certainly been closed for four years. Incorrect or missing charging points were a nuisance in my test, although it is difficult for me to estimate how profound this actually is.
The electrical charge planning worked well in my test. This means that the ID.3 is also suitable for drivers who have little or no experience with electromobility.
The small speedometer display looks strangely small at first, but it turned out to be absolutely sufficient in the practical test. This is mainly due to the excellent head-up display that offers very good Augmented Reality (AR) functions that are almost on a level with those of the Mercedes S-Class.
An absolute specialty is the LED light bar, which is located directly at the front under the windshield. The way in which this was integrated into the UX of the car with animations is not only exemplary, but also groundbreaking. The best use case is currently the support during navigation. There are special animations for incoming calls or when loading starts. I would like to see more of this being delivered via OTA, because I can still imagine a few more advertisements here.
The electric motor of the ID.3 Pro S has an output of 150kW and is therefore able to swim with you in everyday life without any problems. Overtaking maneuvers on the country road are not a problem. But the ID.3 Pro S lacks the punch that is typical for electric cars. Presumably this was done at VW, since acceleration orgies tend to have a negative effect on the range.
There is no manual adjustment of recuperation with the ID.3 Pro S. In return, it has one of the best intelligent recuperation that I have ever experienced in an electric car. Depending on the traffic situation, topography and permitted speed, the ID.3 always manages to set the appropriate recuperation without getting on your nerves with too much or too early a delay.
With the Travel Assist, the ID.3 offers a level 2 system with automatic distance and lane departure warning, which is completely convincing on the motorway. Here, too, is the intelligent integration of the AR head-up display, which conveys a good feeling of security through suitable animations in the environment.
The system in the ID3.Pro S is so good on the autobahn that it only lacks an automatic lane change assistant to achieve maximum comfort points.
Unfortunately, the Travel Assist System is not really helpful on the country road, which in my opinion is not a problem.
Personally, I did not find the limitation of the top speed to 160 km / h justified, as the additional consumption when driving fast on the motorway was so low on average that even 180 km / h would probably not have been a problem.
The long wait for the ID.3 Pro S as a test car was worth it for me. I was able to test a car with an excellent range and excellent assistance systems. Thanks to the current software version, I have been spared bugs or other horror stories from 1st generation customers. If Volkswagen really manages to continuously improve the ID.3 using OTA, it has the potential to live up to the meaning of its name and to become the third revolutionary car, after the Beetle and the Golf, in the company’s history.
