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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge

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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge | Top Gear

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VW unveils its new swoopy electric saloon with a big battery and no other powertrain information

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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge

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VW unveils its new swoopy electric saloon with a big battery and no other powertrain information

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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge

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VW unveils its new swoopy electric saloon with a big battery and no other powertrain information

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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge

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The new Volkswagen ID.7 wants to do 435 miles on a single charge

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VW unveils its new swoopy electric saloon with a big battery and no other powertrain information

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This is the new Volkswagen ID.7 electric saloon, and the headline stat is that it’s aiming for 435 miles of range on a single charge in its Pro S trim. Impressive.

That’s just VW’s internal estimate right now rather than an official WLTP figure, but it’ll apparently be achieved with an 86kWh battery and a slippery drag coefficient of just 0.23. Plus, we’re told that even the standard Pro variant will manage 382 miles from a 77kWh battery.

Those numbers are certainly eye-catching, but it’s a bit of a shame that the ID.7’s actual design isn’t. The front end is largely closed off with a lightbar running across the nose, while the rear gets some funky LED lighting and the roof is swoopy and contrast in colour, but surely VW could have let its designers off the leash a little? Interestingly this might be one of the few cars – a little bit like the Lexus LFA – that looks best in white. And that’s also probably the only time you’ll see the ID.7 and the LFA mentioned in the same sentence.

Anyway, we don’t actually know too much about the ID.7’s powertrain despite this reveal, but just last week VW announced its new AP550 electric motor for the MEB platform, and since we know the ID.7 is based on the MEB platform and will get said motor when it arrives in Europe and China later this year (the US will get it in 2024), we can assume that it’ll be given the full fat 282bhp version to drive the rear wheels. Although a 564bhp twin-motor version with four-wheel drive would be excellent, wouldn’t it?

Still, we do know that the ID.7 Pro will get 170kW rapid charging for its slightly smaller battery, while the Pro S will manage speeds of up to 200kW. “The ID.7 is a large electric Volkswagen for long-distance journeys,” says, erm, Volkswagen.

Inside there’s the next generation of VW’s current (and much maligned) infotainment setup. That means in the centre of the dash is a 15-inch touchscreen that crucially gets a permanent air conditioning panel and illuminated touch sliders so that you can actually change the temperature or turn your music up when it gets dark. We’d prefer proper buttons of course, but at least this is progress from the current setup in the ID.3, 4, 5 and Buzz.

In front of the driver is another small display that shows speed and warning messages etc, but most of the driving information will apparently be shown using a standard augmented reality head-up display. Essentially that means it’ll look like your sat nav directions are being projected onto the road ahead, whilst your speed and the speed limits etc will seem as if they’re hovering closer to you.

Elsewhere inside there are new heated, cooled and massaging seats, as well as an optional panoramic roof that can switch between transparent and opaque at the touch of a button. Or, if you’re feeling particularly confident and don’t have a strong accent, you can switch it using the voice control.

As with all new EVs there’s plenty of active safety systems and driver aids including VW’s Travel Assist cruise control function, and apparently a 700-watt Harman Kardon sound system will also be an option on the configurator.

There’s no word on pricing just yet but expect the ID.7 to go up against things like the Tesla Model 3, despite the fact that at nearly five metres long it’s actually closer to a Model S in size.

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This is the new Volkswagen ID.7 electric saloon, and the headline stat is that it’s aiming for 435 miles of range on a single charge in its Pro S trim. Impressive.

That’s just VW’s internal estimate right now rather than an official WLTP figure, but it’ll apparently be achieved with an 86kWh battery and a slippery drag coefficient of just 0.23. Plus, we’re told that even the standard Pro variant will manage 382 miles from a 77kWh battery.

Those numbers are certainly eye-catching, but it’s a bit of a shame that the ID.7’s actual design isn’t. The front end is largely closed off with a lightbar running across the nose, while the rear gets some funky LED lighting and the roof is swoopy and contrast in colour, but surely VW could have let its designers off the leash a little? Interestingly this might be one of the few cars – a little bit like the Lexus LFA – that looks best in white. And that’s also probably the only time you’ll see the ID.7 and the LFA mentioned in the same sentence.

Anyway, we don’t actually know too much about the ID.7’s powertrain despite this reveal, but just last week VW announced its new AP550 electric motor for the MEB platform, and since we know the ID.7 is based on the MEB platform and will get said motor when it arrives in Europe and China later this year (the US will get it in 2024), we can assume that it’ll be given the full fat 282bhp version to drive the rear wheels. Although a 564bhp twin-motor version with four-wheel drive would be excellent, wouldn’t it?

Still, we do know that the ID.7 Pro will get 170kW rapid charging for its slightly smaller battery, while the Pro S will manage speeds of up to 200kW. “The ID.7 is a large electric Volkswagen for long-distance journeys,” says, erm, Volkswagen.

Inside there’s the next generation of VW’s current (and much maligned) infotainment setup. That means in the centre of the dash is a 15-inch touchscreen that crucially gets a permanent air conditioning panel and illuminated touch sliders so that you can actually change the temperature or turn your music up when it gets dark. We’d prefer proper buttons of course, but at least this is progress from the current setup in the ID.3, 4, 5 and Buzz.

In front of the driver is another small display that shows speed and warning messages etc, but most of the driving information will apparently be shown using a standard augmented reality head-up display. Essentially that means it’ll look like your sat nav directions are being projected onto the road ahead, whilst your speed and the speed limits etc will seem as if they’re hovering closer to you.

Elsewhere inside there are new heated, cooled and massaging seats, as well as an optional panoramic roof that can switch between transparent and opaque at the touch of a button. Or, if you’re feeling particularly confident and don’t have a strong accent, you can switch it using the voice control.

As with all new EVs there’s plenty of active safety systems and driver aids including VW’s Travel Assist cruise control function, and apparently a 700-watt Harman Kardon sound system will also be an option on the configurator.

There’s no word on pricing just yet but expect the ID.7 to go up against things like the Tesla Model 3, despite the fact that at nearly five metres long it’s actually closer to a Model S in size.

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VW unveils its new swoopy electric saloon with a big battery and no other powertrain information