Volkswagen ID.3 review

If you’re reading this at BMW HQ, consider yourselves sincerely flattered. The i3 might not have been the epoch-changing sales success the suits hoped for, but the cabin design clearly won a few fans over in Wolfsburg. 

It’s not just the lofty driving position and airiness in here that’s cribbed from an i3: so’s the twin screen layout, and the drive selector behind the steering wheel. However, with its climate controls mostly hidden in the standard 10-inch touchscreen, the ID.3 feels more minimalist inside. Great if you hate buttons. Not so clever if you value usability. Shame VW didn’t take cues from BMW on the quality of the materials – the base-spec ID.3 Life is full of scratchy plastics. 

You sit fairly high – closer to crossover altitude than in a Golf – which carves out room for the low-slung batteries which give the ID.3 that classic low-centre-of-gravity behaviour. With the split A-pillars ahead of you and the steeply raked bonnet, it feels more MPV than SUV from inside, and pleasingly bright. What’s good for visibility is also pleasing to passengers, and provokes more altruism from your driving, because you’re ‘on display’. Only the slim rear window and thick pillars out back hinder the ID.3’s goldfish bowl experience. 

How does the tech compare to VW’s other playmates?

The main touchscreen media centre with the touchy-feely heater and volume sliders on the shelf that juts out below, is lifted wholesale from the Golf MkVIII. Or is it the other way around? Either way, this means you’re going to be doing a lot of jabbing and swiping instead of prodding switchgear. And much like in the Golf, it’s slow, less than intuitive, and generally infuriating to use, too.

However, the ID.3’s driving assistance systems are some of the best we’ve yet come across. Don’t mistake this for a self-driving car, because no such thing exists regardless of what Elon Musk or his Twitter army tells you. But the manner in which the ID.3 steers itself is so well calibrated, it’s far less fraught operating the monitor in here than it is in the ID.3’s internally combusting cousin. The mirror and window controls, mounted on the driver’s door, are exceedingly fiddly, however, and worse than a Golf’s. Hope they don’t catch on. 

Another piece of Volkswagen v2.0 heralded by the ID.3 is the ‘ID’ light. What at first appears to be a gimmicky strip of Christmas tree lights wrapped around the cabin is in fact a sort of AI driver alert system. It’ll subtly gesture its firefly-esque glow in the direction the nav is pointing you, or flash red if you need to brake suddenly. When charging up, it represents the battery level so it can be spotted at a distance, and it pulses as you converse with the ‘Hey ID’ voice assistant, which is VW’s shortcut for the missing tactile buttons. 

How do rear seat passengers fare? 

Cinema-style seating (the row behind is higher up) offers a useful view ahead for passengers and there’s more space than a Golf, if not the Passat-sized accommodation VW claims. The door trims do look a tad cheap, but you’ll not want for stowage, as the flat floor has been filled with a generous central bay with a phone holder, cupholders and a netted pocket up front.

All very useful, but you get the sense VW could’ve been braver with how it detailed this cabin. It hasn’t gone ‘full lounge’, like the Honda e, or really rammed how the open-space, flat-floor architecture like an i3. It feels very normal, played safe. It’s a bit of a chicken korma, y’know?

You get a 385-litre boot – four litres up on the Golf MkVIII – and there’s underfloor stowage for your mucky charging cables. No secret compartment under the bonnet though, as that’s full of aircon and head-up display gubbins – the ID.3’s screen-projected info is extremely comprehensive. It’s a wonder the instrument screen wasn’t done away with altogether.