With the ID.7, the VW marketing strategists play the entire keyboard. After all, the electric counterpart to the Passat should polish up the reputation of the Lower Saxony car manufacturer, which got a few scratches with the ID.3. So the hopeful was given an innovative camouflage that transformed the car into a mobile light organ and rolled with it to the CES technology fair in Las Vegas. In spite of all the technical finesse, one should not completely forget a car’s core competence, and that is still driving. So we jumped into a prototype to see how the VW chameleon would fare on the road.
A good seating position is quickly found. The cockpit with the 15-inch infotainment screen and the narrow digital display band is typical of the VW BEVs. However, the interior designers drew the right conclusions from the hard plastic desert of the ID.3 and the resulting criticism, and upgraded the ambience visibly and tangibly. The upper area of the dashboard is covered with leather and with the almost invisible air vents of the intelligent air conditioning, a touch of Phaeton and thus luxury blows through the ID.7. That should be the case, because the ID.7 is the fully electric counterpart to the Passat and competes against the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and you can’t make any big mistakes with the impression.
We drive off and are happy about the standard head-up display, which provides us with all the important information via augmented reality. After just a few kilometers, it becomes clear that the VW engineers were guided by the term electric Passat when tuning the chassis. Because the ID.7 is comfortably tuned. Even in sport driving mode, the dampers still filter out bumps in the road quite reliably, although the body also teeters slightly in this driving mode. Even if you turn the dampers to the maximum hardness in the individual tuning known from other VWs, you don’t have to worry about your intervertebral discs. In short: With the ID.7, it’s easy to “eat up kilometers”, especially since 20-inch tires were mounted on our test car.
The rolling movements are also kept within manageable limits. However, the differences between the driving programs Eco, Comfort and Sport could be a bit more pronounced. The VW ID.7 can be moved calmly, which fits the concept of a long-distance vehicle. The progressive steering is not designed to be overly sporty, but reports reliably how the traction is ordered. However, the sloping A-pillars sometimes restrict the field of vision when turning. But you have to die a death if you want to achieve a drag coefficient of 0.23. On the other hand, the interior of the ID.7 is so quiet that you can easily carry on conversations even in a quiet voice.
With the VW ID.7, VW wants to make up lost ground against competitors like Tesla and has therefore lent a hand to the MEB platform. It starts with the engine, where the performance spiral ended at 150 kW / 204 hp. We are on the road with the new “big” machine with 210 kW / 286 hp and a torque of 545 Newton meters, so nominally significantly less than the competition, but more than enough to be fast with the electric Passat. The new e-machine has a rotor and is equipped with a stronger and more heat-resistant magnet. The copper wires have a larger diameter and the number of turns has increased. Cooling is provided by a new, combined oil and water cooling system and a water cooling jacket on the outside of the stator. This allows more power from the electric motor over a longer period of time. In order to increase efficiency, the Lower Saxony have also redeveloped the pulse-controlled inverter. When it comes to recuperation, the VW only offers one level by turning the automatic steering wheel lever to B. We are not quite as impressed by the brakes, which do their job solidly, but have a more precise pressure point and could therefore be more controllable.
Something is also happening with the batteries. VW offers two variants: The ID.7 Pro will be launched in autumn, has a battery capacity of 82 kilowatt hours (net 77 kWh) and the ID.7 Pro S variant, which will be available from dealers a little later 91 kWh (85 kWh net). We are traveling with the small energy storage devices and at the end of our test drive we had a battery charge level of 42 percent and a remaining range of 193 kilometers. According to Adam Riese and the rule of three, this would add up to around 460 kilometers. When it comes to consumption, VW is still covered, but the maximum WLTP range should be 615 kilometers (with the 82 kWh batteries) or 700 kilometers. When loading, the VW engineers have wiped out an important nick in the MEB Evo. Even for architectures with 400 volt technology, the MEB was not in the top group. That is changing now. The ID.7 Pros charge with a maximum of 170 kW and the Pro versions can nominally even achieve a charging power of up to 200 kW.
The infotainment represents a step forward. The operation is more intuitive than before and many of the symbols are self-explanatory. The software designers have apparently remembered the tried and tested and integrated a bar with symbols into the infotainment system, with which important functions such as navigation, assistance systems or vehicle data can be accessed directly. However, the tiles are relatively small, so you always have to look down to start the right action. There is also a direct access level for the air conditioning, as well as for the volume. This is controlled by the rain gutters known from the other ID models, which does not always work right away.
If you look at the silhouette of the 4.97 meter long VW ID.7, nothing good is in store for the rear passengers, as the roof line drops sharply in order to guide the air along the car as smoothly as possible. However, even people over 1.85 tall don’t fall on their heads and you can comfortably relax in the second row. With a wheelbase of 2.97 meters, legroom is not an issue anyway. Important, since the ID.7 is supposed to bring money into the coffers of the Lower Saxony car manufacturer in Germany and the USA as well as in China. In its basic configuration, the trunk already has a volume of 532 liters so that the luggage can also be taken along.
