Volkswagen ID. Polo review

The big surprise is just how grown-up the ID. Polo feels. Based on the MEB+ platform, there’s a front-wheel drive layout, with all the electrical gubbins up under the bonnet. There’s a compact McPherson strut front suspension and a battery under the floor in the middle, aft of which is just a compact torsion bar rear. So the blueprint looks nose-heavy.

There are specific top mounts, vibration dampening and specific anti-roll bars, plus what VW calls ‘premium’ dampers, AKA more expensive than it could have supplied. So the ID. Polo rides better than its size would suggest, dealing with pretty much anything you can throw at it. Larger bumps can get the rear suspension to thump a bit, and the caveat is that we’ve only really driven it on very smooth Austrian roads, but generally it’s an impressive little car.

The very competent basics mean that everything else draws inspiration from the groundwork; the steering is fast and precise, the body control taut if not aggressive. And with disc brakes all-round and a new ‘one-box’ braking system, it pulls to a stop with finesse and half-decent pedal feel. Not a sportscar, but not a lump, either.

Is it fun to drive then?

Surprisingly so. The 208bhp car we drove is almost a warm hatch, such is the delivery. Generating 214lb ft of torque it might not have the guts to start out-dragging stuff on a motorway or dual carriageway, but on a twisty backroad there’s plenty to amuse, and it gives the impression of being wieldy and… neat.

A lot of that feeling is down to the fact that everything in the ID. Polo feels like it’s matched to the other stuff. The single-speed ‘box and new pulse inverter are inveigled into the motor housing, the anti-roll bars feel sorted, and everything from body control to steering and braking feel feed from those foundations. The Raval might be more bombastic, but the ID. Polo has a handle on finesse.

It’s comfy, too. Dial it back and it’ll cruise around like a car with a much longer wheelbase. Exactly what VW intended.

What would you actually use one for, then?

Hear the word Polo and you might think the electric version would be urban-centric. But not a bit of it. There’s plenty of big-car goodness on offer here, and with 220-230 miles of real-world range from the bigger battery, this is not a small electric car that would struggle with the odd longer trip.

And even though a 105kW max DC charging rate (90kW DC with the smaller battery, 11kW standard AC across the board) doesn’t sound that impressive, it’s not a particularly big battery in either case. So that’s 10-80 per cent in 24 minutes for the larger one. It’s all been terribly thoroughly thought through. Which is the alliteration you really didn’t think you needed.