Volkswagen ID.3 2022 Review

Intro, Price, Options and Verdict

Introduction

When we first looked at the Volkswagen ID.3 in 2020, only one motor power and two battery options had been announced. The car we drove was the launch 1st Edition, which had already been discontinued. Since then, Volkswagen has launched some more motor choices and adjusted the trims available.

Although right now you only appear to be able to order the VW ID.3 Pro Performance Life, we thought it was time to revisit the car to see how it has developed over the last couple of years and discuss the changes.

Price and Options

The big change with the ID.3 since we last looked at it is the new models, although at the time of writing they weren’t listed to buy. Assuming things will eventually return to normal, there are now five trim levels, three different motor powers, and three different battery sizes. However, even assuming these will become available again, you can't choose every combination.

The trims are Life, Style, Family, Max, and Tour. The Business and Tech trims of the initial post-launch range have been discontinued. The three motor powers and three battery sizes are combined to make four drivetrain combinations. Pure Performance combines a 45kWh battery and 150PS motor, Pro a 58kWh battery and 145PS motor, Pro Performance the same 58kWh battery and a 204PS motor, and Pro S a 77kWh battery with the 204PS motor. At the time of writing, only the Pro Performance was available to order on VW’s UK website, in Life trim.

All trim levels are quite well equipped, with even the Life offering heated, folding wing mirrors plus heated seats and steering wheel. It also includes adaptive cruise, front and rear parking sensors, and a comprehensive safety package. Under normal circumstances, you can get this trim with the Pure Performance, Pro and Pro Performance motor and battery combo, but not the Pro S.

The Style trim adds mostly cosmetic enhancements, although it does include the parking camera and dual-zone climate control. The Style trim is only available with the Pure Performance battery and motor. The Family trim adds a Panoramic sunroof (also available separately and added to the Life car we were lent by Onto as an option), but otherwise this trim has a lot in common with Style, except that you can only choose the Pro and Pro Performance drivetrains.

Then there's Max, which adds adjustable lumbar support and massage function to the seats. There's a better speaker system and head-up display, plus dynamic chassis control. You can only specify the Pro Performance drivetrain for this trim. Max also includes the panoramic sunroof like the Family trim.

The Tour trim is unusual because it’s only available with the Pro S drivetrain, which uses the larger battery. This contains most of the features of the Max, but not the chassis control or panoramic sunroof, which we find a curious choice for such a premium model.

This is a confusing array of options, particularly as not all combinations are possible, and there are option packs offered too. However, as we already mentioned, you don’t need to worry about that right now, because there was only one model available at the time of writing. We also can’t wait for the ID. dual-motor powertrain to arrive on the ID.3 and its Cupra Born relative, despite it being available for a number of Volkwagen Group’s electric SUVs.

A lot of the features bundled in with the trim can be specified separately. A heat pump is £1,020, and there are packs with a lot of the trim features ranging in price from £340 to £2,470. The latter is the price for adding the panoramic sunroof to the Life trim, for example – something, as we said, our sample car had. None of these were shown on the VW online configurator at the time of writing.

Most trims come with 18in steel “Aero” wheels as standard, but there are 18in, 19in and 20in steel alloy options ranging in price from £660 to £1,810. Our car had the 19in “Andoya” rims. What VW calls Moonstone and we call battleship grey is the no-cost non-metallic colour choice, but there are metallic and pearl grey, white, red, turquoise, blue and silver available, all of which cost £665. Our car had turquoise paint, which is one of our favourite options, as it’s eye-catching and isn’t common on other car brands.

The ID.3 used to be relatively good value, but this is hard to gauge in the current market. The base price used to be under £30,000 for several trim and powertrain options, with the Pure Performance Life costing just a little over £27,000. The Pro Performance Life was also under £30,000. At the time of writing, however, the starting price was £36,195 for this trim and powertrain combination, which is quite an increase. The cessation of the UK government grant hasn’t helped matters, but with the base Kia Niro EV almost exactly the same price and with more range, the ID.3 isn’t quite the value option it used to be.

However, there are other ways to drive an EV than owning it outright or leasing it. We were lent our sample car by EV subscription service Onto, which provides a very cost-effective way to drive this car. An Onto subscription to the ID.3 we tested is £619 a month but includes insurance, maintenance, servicing, breakdown cover, and 750 miles of charging from bp pulse, Shell Recharge and InstaVolt.

Design, Comfort and Storage

Exterior Design

Volkswagen claims the ID.3 gets its “3” from being the third generation of “people’s car” after the Beetle and Golf, although we wonder what that makes the ID.4 and ID.5. The ID.3 has much more family resemblance to the Golf than the Beetle. In fact, the ID.3 looks like an evolution of the Golf 8, because it essentially is. It’s in the compact hatchback class, and is about the same size, albeit a centimetre or so wider and taller.

We like the way the ID.3 looks – a good balance of the futuristic and familiar. The stubby nose and headlights provide an earnest look, with the minimal integrated spoiler at the rear adding some dynamism. However, the Cupra Born, which is the same platform, has a more aggressive front and a greater sense of style.

We have spotted a few niggles since our initial review of the ID.3. When folded, the wing mirrors point their mirror side upwards, which means they get rained on and end up being stained (assuming it ever rains again in the UK, which it hadn’t for weeks at the time of writing). We have noticed that VW Golfs do this too, so it’s obviously a Volkswagen thing, but we’re not convinced it’s a good idea.

Other than that, the ID.3 does well to be like a Golf in size but with a longer wheelbase and a slightly higher roof, the interior space is more like that of the larger Passat. If you’ve chosen a car that includes the Assistance Pack or Assistance Pack Plus, you get keyless entry. This operates via a sensor on the handle, which you touch to unlock as you pull the door handle. It’s very instinctive and allows you to open the car with a single hand motion.

Interior Comfort

Volkswagen has stripped things back considerably with the ID. cars’ interior design, which you may or may not like. Either you'll think it's pleasantly minimalist, or you'll find it a bit cheap. There is plenty of interior space both front and back, and more than you would expect from a car this size. But the membrane dashboard buttons, while probably quite durable, don’t exactly exude a premium sense of class.

There are no leather or even artificial leather upholstery options. Instead, there are two cloth seat materials to choose from called Fragment and Flow. The car we drove had the Flow/Art Velours option, which is cleaner and comes with a more pronounced two-tone interior motif.

As already mentioned, the seats and steering wheel are heated on all trim levels. However, only the Max and Tour trims have electric adjustment, and no ID.3s have a memory function. Otherwise, seat adjustment is mechanical, which feels a bit rudimentary when you look at the starting price of this car now.

In the central console is a cubby, with a USB port inside so you can charge a device out of sight. We are particularly big fans of the ID.3’s cupholders, which will adjust to fit most sizes of cup or bottle. Further forward is a pair of USB C ports and a wireless charging mat, which seemed to superheat phones we put in it. Th glovebox is quite deep but only extends halfway across its door, so won’t fit (for example) a box of man-sized tissues.

The rear seats also feel quite spacious, although the panoramic sunroof does make the sides of the roof a bit lower than cars without this feature, which reduces the sense of headroom. There is plenty of knee room, however, and more than you'd get in a Golf. The middle seat is also more generous than some, and if you don't have a middle seat passenger, you can pull the back down to make an arm rest with a couple of integrated cupholders.

Annoyingly, there are no rear air-conditioning vents, but you do get two USB plugs for rear phone charging. The two rear outer seats have ISOfix points for child car chairs, as does the front passenger seat.

Storage and Load Carrying

The ID.3 has a decently sized boot for a hatchback, starting at 385 litres with the rear seats up. There's a small extra compartment for some emergency kit and a charging cable under a flap in the boot floor. The rear seats drop down in the usual 60/40 arrangement giving you 1,267 litres.

In other words, you start off with a bit less than a Nissan Leaf but can have more than a Leaf if you need it by putting the seats down. You can also open a gap in the middle behind the arm rest to stick a long item through. Perhaps the most telling comparison is that the boot space is more than a Golf 8, and with the seats down it's ahead too, so you can shift more cargo by going electric.

In-Car Entertainment and Controls

If the interior trim lacks a bit of luxury, another reason why the ID.3 looks a bit bare inside is the lack of buttons and knobs. Although there is a start / stop button, you can start the car like a Tesla by simply pushing the brake pedal with the key on your person. Once you get used to a system like this, you will wonder why other manufacturers make things so complicated.

The other controls are a halfway house between the minimalism of Tesla and the button overkill of a regular car dashboard. The membrane buttons for a few functions including lights and the brake auto-hold feature might disappoint those looking for a solid, traditional German interior from VW. But we like the fact that there are dedicated buttons for some key functions, rather than expecting everything to be adjusted through a touch screen, as with the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.

Although the buttons are a bit cheap, there are more of them than on a Tesla albeit fewer than most German cars. They represent the main functions you'd want to have specific buttons for, such as demisting your windscreen. However, as already mentioned, the membrane design doesn’t feel particularly packed with quality.

The steering wheel is relatively conventional, with adaptive cruise controls on the left plus menu and media functions on the right. Weirdly, you can’t mute the sound system with the latter, just increase or decrease the volume incrementally. There are the usual separate stalks for lights and indicators on the left, plus windscreen wipers on the right.

A rotating knob on the side of the dashboard selects drive, reverse, B-mode, and park with the button on the end. There's a button on the dashboard for choosing between Eco, Normal and Sport modes, and unlike some EVs the ID.3 stays in the mode you've chosen next time you start the car.

There's a 5.3in panel behind the steering wheel that makes no pretence towards mimicking traditional dashboard instrumentation. Information is clear and functional. We think the minimalist design here is well thought out, giving you everything you need and not overloading you with details that aren’t necessary. The Max and Tour trims augment this with a head up display, but other trims don't have this.

The air conditioning has two zones, but this is only an option in some trim levels, and not the entry-level Life (although our car had a pack adding this). There are separate buttons for increasing temperature on each side, but these aren’t lit, making them harder to use in the dark. There are a lot more climate control functions available through the infotainment screen, including heated seats and steering wheel, plus Smart Climate presets for things like window defogging and warming or cooling your feet and hands.

All versions of the ID.3 get a 10in media and connected sat-nav display. It's a touchscreen and we like the way it senses the closeness of your fingers and provides more detailed menu information as your hand approaches. There is an FM and DAB radio, as well as support for Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and MirrorLink. These are all cable-based.

The sat-nav interface is nice and clear. You also get the Volkswagen WeConnect Start connected services for 3 years. Generally, we think the infotainment screen interface is quite well organised. You don’t get features like built-in media streaming connectivity from Netflix or Spotify, but VW has now at least finally implemented over-the-air updates, so functionality will enjoy incremental improvements.

Performance, Running Costs, Range, and Safety

Performance and Driving

Although you still get the usual immediate torque of an EV with the ID.3, it's not particularly fast in any of its forms. The Pro drivetrain takes a pedestrian 9.6 seconds to hit 62mph, and the Pure Performance is only a little faster at 8.9 seconds. The Pro Performance we drove is the only relatively quick version, thanks to its 204PS motor, hitting 62mph in 7.3 seconds. However, with the larger Pro S battery, this increases to 7.9 seconds due to the extra weight. We honestly can’t wait for a dual-motor version of this car.

Mind you, with rear wheel drive the current ID.3 is still quite a fun car to drive, and the handling is light enough despite the 1.8-ton weight. Thanks to the low centre of gravity, the ID.3 feels planted in corners. You sense the heaviness on fast twisty roads, but there's plenty of engagement. The Cupra Born, however, manages to provide tighter handling from the same drivetrain and very similar body.

This car also feels assured at motorway speeds, and with 340 miles range available from the Pro S Tour, the ID.3 is a good balance for city driving, A-roads and motorway. Even the Pro Performance has enough range for long trips, albeit with more frequent trips to the charger. The Pure Performance will be more city focused.

Range and Charging

Volkswagen has upgraded the ID.3's charging capabilities since launch, and very mildly improved the range. The WLTP ratings (all presumably with the base 18in wheels) are 216 miles for the 45kWh battery, 264 miles for the 58kWh one, and 340 miles for the 77kWh unit, with the latter two a couple of miles more than at launch.

The smallest battery will take 7.5 hours to charge from zero to full on a 7kW home charger, the 58kWh unit 9.5, and the 77kWh one around 13 hours. The Pro (58kWh) and Pro S (77kWh) batteries also support 11kW AC charging. DC charging is where the main upgrades have come, however. The limit used to be 100kW, but the 45kWh battery can handle 110kW DC, taking 30 minutes to achieve 80%. The 58kWh unit supports 120kW DC, so only takes 5 minutes longer. The 77kWh battery supports 125kW DC and clearly has a better curve because it only takes 38 minutes to reach 80%.

So all cars have distance capability, and Volkswagen's We Charge provides access to 250,000 charge points across Europe, including IONITY's for which there is a “preferential rate”. This can be as low as 28p per kWh and 27p for AC networks, for £12.99 a month. The Free We Charge subscription costs 45p for AC, 60p for DC, and 69p for IONITY. Of course, as our car came from Onto we had 750 miles a month included in our monthly fee, albeit not from IONITY chargers.

Running Costs

Based on WLTP range, the ID.3’s efficiency ranges from 4.4 to 4.8 miles per kWh, which is very good if you can achieve it in the real world, although the larger the battery, the lower the efficiency. Assuming a 29p per kWh home supply (likely to disappear in October) you will pay from 6p to 6.6p per mile.

Our vehicle was supplied by ONTO, which means that insurance, breakdown cover, maintenance and enough electricity for the average UK drive of 20 miles a day – are all included in the price. You will see lower baseline lease figures, but then you’ll need to add these essential items onto the total.

Insurance groups are also quite reasonable, starting at 23 for the Pure Performance Life up to 30 for the Pro S Tour. The warranty is typical for a European car, however, with three years or 60,000 miles for most components. The battery has the usual eight-year, 100,000-mile guarantee for 70% capacity.

Safety

The ID.3 takes a leaf out of the book of Korean companies and provides a fair bit of safety tech as standard. We particularly like the fact that you get adaptive cruise and lane assist across all models, and the implementation is very effective for both. There is City emergency braking, plus forward collision warning with pedestrian detection. The ID.3 received 5 stars in the Euro NCAP test, and even has an airbag between front passengers to prevent head collisions.

There aren't significant extra safety features as you go up trim levels, however, except that the basic front and rear parking sensors become a rear-view camera above the Style trim, and then a more sophisticated version with the Max and Tour. You need the Assistance pack plus for Emergency, Side and Travel Assist, which provides forward collision warning and blind spot detection.

Key Specifications

*based on electricity costs of 29p per kWh