Volkswagen ID.5 review

Volkswagen’s current generation of interiors isn’t up to the high standards we'd come to expect from the firm: surely the idea of all these shared platforms across the wider group is that it leaves a bit of room to spiff things up inside? If we were feeling uncharitable we might say that the cracks of the last 10 years are starting to show.

There are brittle, cheap-feeling plastics across the dash, around the doors and where you might rest your knee; enough to question the thinking at Wolfsburg. By the company’s own admission the early adopter phase of EV take-up has passed, and it’s trying to attract a new crowd.

Recent upgrades have gone some way to improving things: the infotainment task flow is better, but some things - like changing the fan speed - are still far too fiddly.

We've complained before about the unlit strips to change the air temperature and volume; impossible to use at night, you see. Well, these are now illuminated. Hurrah! What a shame the gear shifter isn't...

Are you going to say something about buttons now? 

Well of course. We can sort of understand the thinking: shifting functions to the touchscreen systems means that you can play around with things as you release over-the-air updates, and it gives carmakers the scope to offer drivers more flexibility. But the set-up is at best annoying, at worst dangerous.

And one driver’s convenience is another driver’s supreme irritation. The car turns itself off when you get out of the driver’s seat, but what good is that if you’re opening a garage door or reaching to shove your ticket in the car park machine?

You might be more than happy to engage the services of the voice command system (which pops up uninvited with bizarre regularity) but for anyone else there are multiples of touchscreen menus to wade through and yet more precious attention diverted from the road ahead.

The driver’s electric window switches have been pared down to just the two, with a little piece of touch sensitive plastic to select the rear windows. You’ll forever find yourself accidentally brushing that and opening the wrong ones. It’s bonkers. 

Must be some cool tech onboard though?

There is. Ambitious and exciting tech, too. The infotainment was upgraded in 2023 to the latest versions available from the company parts bin: the display is crisper, the software itself has been updated and the screen size increased to 12.9 inches.

The augmented reality head-up display is pretty cool, and Volkswagen also says its satnav will offer smart routing depending on your driving style and how much charge you’ve got left in your battery, with strategic stops to make sure the whole journey is quicker and smoother. Pity they put so much effort in really, we just used Apple/Android connectivity the whole time we had the car. So will you, probably.

The parking system helps you in and out of spaces, and will even rescue you if you’ve messed up a manoeuvre and got the car stuck. It’ll also memorise five different locations and learn how you’ve got into the parking space, repeating the manoeuvre every time you stop there. Fancy stuff.

What about the bootspace?

The ID.4’s boxy shape means it gets a rather cavernous 543-litre boot, but strangely the ID.5 actually beats that with a 549-litre split level space back there. Still not enough for us to forgive the rest of the interior, though. And with the rear seats folded flat the ID.5’s 1,561 litres gives away 95 litres to the ID.4.