First Drive: VW ID.4

by Michael Satterfield - 05/01/2021

As more and more traditional car companies release electric cars the reality of having viable options in the electric car marketplace is finally becoming a reality. For more than a decade electric car startups have been unveiling slick prototypes with claimed features direct from a Sci-Fi movie, but outside of a few successful cars from Chevrolet, Tesla, and Nissan, the electric car has mostly been vaporware.

Even the cars that have come out have all attempted to be too clever and have misled many consumers to believe the cars are self-driving or that they don't require any maintenance. But while I have not been a major fan of the all-electric car, mainly due to the lack of charging infrastructure and the long charge times, we will be seeing a lot more electric options like this 2021 Volkswagen ID.4.

Volkswagen has positioned the ID.4 to go head to head with the Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, and Honda CR-V, and honestly, they have built a very good compact SUV that happens to be electric. There aren't any tricky driving modes or wild design features to signify that it is an electric vehicle, it just looks like a nice compact crossover, which might be a good thing. 

Besides looking like any other compact crossover, the driving experience is similar to any gasoline-powered competitor. Get in, put it in drive, brake on the left, accelerator on the right. VW has built-in a "B" driving mode, which stands for braking and triggers the regenerative braking, lift off the throttle and the car starts to slow, it won't come to a complete stop so you will still need to use the brake pedal. 

Under the floor 77.0kWh lithium-ion battery pack that powers a 201-hp electric motor which drives the rear wheels. While the horsepower rating might be similar to other compact crossovers in this class the battery pack adds almost 1,000 pounds over comparable gasoline crossovers. That extra weight is low in the chassis so the ID.4 does handle well, but despite the RWD platform it isn't what you would call fun to drive and that added girth means it is a little slow off the line. Volkswagen has promised a dual-motor all-wheel-drive version good for closer to 300-hp that should be available by the end of 2021. The ID.4 does make a fairly sad sound when it is under 20 miles-per-hour to warn pedestrians, kind of an electric whine, but thankfully once you get going the vehicle is nearly completely silent. 

Inside the ID.4 is very conventional, with a nicely trimmed interior, large 12-inch touch screen, and intuitive placement of buttons and switches. Like many modern infotainment systems, VW has decided to make this one of the most complicated and perhaps annoying features of the interior. Almost everything is controlled via the large touch screen, which can mean endless search through menus. Perhaps once you get used to it, it will feel more natural, but first impressions leave a lot to be desired. 

According to EPA the ID.4 has a range of 250-miles of combined driving, I didn't get to test that out, but in my experience with other all-electric cars expect to lose 25% of that range in the real world. Level II charging takes just under 8 hours and fast charging can get you back up to 80% in under 40 minutes. One advantage buyers of the ID.4 do have is three years of free charging from Electrify America fast chargers which a subsidiary of Volkswagen.  

This first edition Volkswagen ID.4 stickered for just over $45,000 which is comparable to other crossovers in this category, depending on your location, and access to chargers, the three years of free fast-charging could make the ID.4 a better deal. For me, it is still hard to beat the plug-in hybrids that offer at least some all-electric driving without having to have another vehicle for long-distance trips or adventures off the beaten path. In smaller cities, towns, and the countryside range anxiety is real and in many communities, fast chargers have yet to be installed. The electrified future still has a long way to go, but at least Volkswagen is building electric cars that are for today's consumers and not an imagined future.