Verdict

9.0 / 10

I’m one among simply six journalists from American retailers invited to this relatively distant location close to the Mediterranean coast of Spain, between Valencia and Alicante. Volkswagen has I’mgone to an terrible lot of logistical effort – sophisticated flight plans, a number of accommodations, on-site specialists, and workshops – for me to get behind the wheel of an unfinished prototype and drive about 45 minutes via the mountains.

The rationale for the fuss is the upcoming (although nonetheless far-off) Volkswagen ID.7 sedan, a brand new flagship for the corporate’s electrification efforts. Though my drive notes will likely be plagued by caveats – the automobiles available have been removed from manufacturing type. In the event you’re eager about getting the fuller story, I encourage you to examine again on April 17 after we’ll be allowed to share much more data and images of the uncovered automotive.

Within the meantime, this amuse-bouche confirms Volkswagen is coming into new territory with this near-luxury EV.

The decision issued here’s a unfastened estimate based mostly on data that is topic to vary. It would probably evolve as extra details about the ID.7 turns into obtainable and we get extra alternatives to check the brand new EV. A automobile’s rankings are relative solely to its personal section and never the new-vehicle market as a complete. For extra on how InsideEVs charges automobiles, click on right here.

Extra Bang Than Buzz

The ID.7 shares VW’s modular electrical drive platform with the remainder of the ID household (that’s ID.4 and ID. Buzz right here within the US) and the acquainted 86.0-kilowatt-hour (77.0 kWh useable) with a 400-volt structure. Drivers in different markets will be capable to choice a 91.0-kWh battery (86.0-kWh gross) that sadly gained’t be coming to our shores.

Thanks in giant measure to the sedan’s slippery 0.23 coefficient of drag (which matches Tesla’s Mannequin 3, as an illustration), count on the smaller-battery ID.7 to get usefully extra vary than the max of 275 miles supplied by the ID.4. That mentioned, it’s honest to say that we gained’t have something like official EPA vary or effectivity figures for fairly some time, contemplating the automotive gained’t go on sale within the US till the second half of 2024.

I drove the single-motor, rear-drive variant of the ID.7, and I can report that the brand new electrical motor is a welcome addition to the corporate’s portfolio. Producing 282 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque, with stronger everlasting magnets within the rotor and a revised stator, ID.7 places energy to pavement seamlessly. Acceleration felt fairly good as I caught up and sometimes handed slow-moving visitors on our mountain roads-only drive route, however it’ll take a extra intensive check to really feel the consequences on high-speed US highways.

4 drive modes govern how the ID.7 goes down the highway, as a part of a extra intensive “Driving Dynamics Supervisor” suite of software program. Right here I’ve to warning that my impressions won’t maintain as much as the manufacturing model of the automotive, because the system wasn’t totally baked within the prototype.

Grade: Incomplete

For me, there wasn’t an amazing distinction in steering or suspension response as I toggled between the obtainable Consolation, Sport, Eco, and Particular person modes, strive as I would to suss them out. Sport mode did provide a noticeably stronger accelerator, as you’d count on, and appeared to extend the braking impact from motor regeneration. VW specialists on web site weren’t capable of affirm or deny that enhanced regen was a part of the Sport programming, speculating as a substitute that I’ll have been feeling GPS-enabled predictive deceleration whereas heading down a steep and winding highway.

I’m not precisely certain easy methods to sq. the very best guess from the VW group with my expertise, to be trustworthy. But once more, we’ll want extra seat time in a production-ready automotive to get some solutions.

I can affirm that there isn’t something like a one-pedal driving mode for the ID.7. Volkswagen, like portfolio associate Porsche, has adopted the coasting-over-regen strategy to effectivity, which might be right. Nevertheless, for somebody like me that appreciates utilizing a one-pedal fashion in metropolis driving, the dearth of any configurability here’s a head scratcher.

ID.7’s tremendous aerodynamic form had an amazing impact on in-cabin expertise, because the automotive was whisper quiet on the highway. Once more, this was on two-lane roads at speeds that hardly ever approached 70 miles per hour, so the check isn’t full. However the promise is definitely evident for top-level NVH.

The hushed atmosphere will likely be considerably stuffed with simulated audio that wasn’t lively on my automotive, as properly. It doesn’t appear to be you may flip these noises off however you may at the least configure them in Particular person mode to replicate your favourite – right here’s hoping it’s compelling audio.

Total trip high quality appears to underline Volkswagen’s positioning of this automotive as an government expertise. Over a couple of sections of dangerous pavement, unfastened gravel, and pace bumps in a village, the trip was extraordinarily properly damped and freed from influence harshness of any form. Tuning for the adaptive damping system, in each mode I attempted, appeared biased in the direction of consolation and high-speed stability greater than sporty response.

Steering tune was about the identical: The variable ratio electrical rack needs nothing greater than to information you easily round mild curves. Suggestions is totally minimal, turn-in is tepid, and weighting is pleasantly center of the highway. VW calls the trip expertise “the electrical enterprise class” so the relaxed steering and dealing with hit the presumed goal right here.

Tech Laden

As you learn this, Volkswagen continues to be insisting that media invited to expertise the prototype ID.7 maintain again on lots of the most attention-grabbing developments by way of in-cabin expertise. What follows, then, is an inventory of options with little or no real-world evaluation, as I promised to save lots of that for later.

With that mentioned, I’ll but once more encourage you to revisit this primary drive on April 17 as we’ll replace this part with much more element.

What can I say? Let me begin right here: As a result of everybody who drove an ID.4 requested, the sliders to manage media quantity and local weather management temp at the moment are backlit as god meant. No extra random stabbing on the IP on a darkish drive house. What’s extra, there are fastened controls for the heated and cooled seats and a button for the heated steering wheel on, you guessed it, the steering wheel.

A 15.0-inch display instructions the middle console of the automotive, and is working an entirely new software program setup that, you guessed it, I can’t inform you about proper now.

Extra revolutionary than that giant display (nearly each new EV has a really giant display lately, in spite of everything) is the small one discovered the place you’d count on to have an instrument cluster in entrance of the motive force. In an effort to maintain a driver’s eyes on the highway, most all data you’d anticipate finding in a gauge cluster has been moved to a heads up show. Once more, I can’t say a lot about how the system works or what it seems like. What I can inform you is that, like nearly each different HUD I’ve ever used, the ID.7 affair was all however invisible on a sunny day in Spain whereas I had my polarized sun shades on.

House For Days

It stays to be seen how this international flagship sedan will hit with SUV-obsessed American patrons, however they gained’t have a lot of an argument to make if house is a main concern. The ID.7 measures a beneficiant 195.3 inches lengthy on a 116.8-inch wheelbase, and stretches 73.3 inches huge.

For passengers, that nets out to a voluminous five-seater cabin. InsideEVs readers would possibly do not forget that I’m the most important automotive tester on workers at 6-foot-5 and 240 kilos, and I had acres of house sitting within the again behind my very own driving place.

When it comes to cargo, VW specifies 18.7 cubic-feet within the baggage compartment, the attention check says you’re going to give you the option stuff loads beneath this lengthy liftback. With rear seats that fold almost flat, one is straight away reminded of the cargo space of automobiles just like the Audi A7 and even the European Passat wagon. (I instantly considered my outdated Saab 9-5 Aero that I as soon as used to move all of my Earthly items, together with a twin mattress, however I’m outdated…).

Clearly this prototype drive wasn’t an entire expertise, however the vibe is one among a level-up for the ID collection of EVs. Actually if wild speculations of worth (simply south of $40,000 appears to be in play) are even near correct, the mixture of vary, efficiency, tech, and utility may very well be compelling for a lot of EV customers.