Today we're going to take a look at the future and here it is, no petrol or diesel in here, just batteries.
Yes, children.
That's right, just like in your toys.
And because the motor sits between the rear wheels and it's small enough to slip into an overnight bag, this car plays a very clever trick.
It's as small as your mom's car on the outside and nearly as big as your daddy's car on the inside.
Yes.
Like that doctors telephone box, what a world it will be in the future.
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Welcome to the future indeed.
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Why there are saying that this is the future.
After all, we've tested other electric cars on the channel before the Hungary the pole star to Tesla's a tie can.
The reason this is so important is that this is effectively the new Gulf.
The three in ID 3. Yes, it will sort of place it within a range of cars, but they say ID 3 also refers to the fact that this is the third car, the beetle being the first one.
The golf being second and now this the third and the golf is it's a staple.
It is what you think of when you think of a car look up car in a pictorial dictionary.
And you see a picture of a golf I think.
So this feels like, well, the new people's car.
So this is the sort of thing that you feel like you are going to see everywhere in the brave new electric world
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There are three levels of ID three on the way with 4558 or 77 kilowatt hour batteries.
This is a first edition, which means it has the middling 58 kilowatt hour battery acclaimed 260 miles of range and costs 38,500 pounds or 35,800 pounds.
After the 3000 pound Evie grant is deducted.
Prices haven't been announced yet for the 45 kilowatt hour models, but the cheapest life trim of a 58 kilowatt hour car will come in at 29,990 pounds with that grant for comparison, the latest market golf starts at 24,000 pounds.
The only three is the first car to be based on VW all new MEB platform, which is basically where it has all the batteries down low.
And it can be scaled up or down.
So there's already I think an ID for that they've revealed and it will spawn a whole collection of battery electric vehicles VW has been reminding everyone that it's the brand that was born without a grill when it launched the beetle, so this new Evie face isn't really so unusual.
Overall, this turquoise example certainly attracted a lot of attention, but I can't say I find the slightly shapeless shape very attractive.
Nonetheless, it is a practical shape, slightly shorter than a golf but with a wheelbase near that of a Passat, Under 385 litres, is booters slightly bigger than a golf crew.
Despite having the micron, suspension is McPherson struts at the front and a multilink setup on the rear, like the more expensive golf in the range.
However, that suspension has to cope with over 1700 kilos were about 250 kilos more than the heaviest golf.
What does it feel like to drive well we've got The motor in the rear.
So between the rear wheel so it is rear wheel drive so to that extent it feels quite nice the steering this accurate and quite clean is obviously uncorrupted because the front wheels are only steering they can also get model unlock so it's got a pretty tight turning circle.
This we've got a couple of modes up here so we select the modes from this.
Thing here and you got drive or B, and B just means you get more regenerative braking.
So you can have more of that sort of one pedal field which works well around town, the brakes.
I think they they try and harvest as much regenerative energy.
It's quite hard to say that regenerative energy before they actually put pen to disk.
And it does lead to a slightly inconsistent brake pedal fail.
It's not not the nicest to have to say the motor is good for about 200 brake horsepower, which is ample, really not to 67.8 seconds but the car actually feels quicker than that.
Never to use you've obviously got that instant response.
The ride on the 19 inch wheels of our test car was rather good with a firm but nicely damped feeling.
What's more, the general quietness with a lack of tyre or wind noise is also impressive.
He gave a real luxury feeling to the inside of the car found slightly odd driving this Is that?
Well, it's to do with the low center of gravity.
Now this is always a real benefit you keep centrally having all the batteries down in the country.
The trouble with that normally if you have a low center of gravity is inside.
Something like a sports car and you sit low.
If you have a high center of gravity, it's in something like lateral defender or something like that.
And obviously you sit, you sit up high in this, the center of gravity is down low, but I actually sit sort of relatively high like a sort of small SUV I suppose.
And so, If you drive more enthusiastically, then you feel like you are away from that center of gravity.
Which then sorta brings to mind the thought of Mr. Bean driving sitting on top of his Mini.
Obviously not quite like that, but there is something Just a little bit odd about it.
Let's have a chat about the technology.
Some things I really like the ID light bar for example, it helps you navigate or tells you how much charge the batteries have.
But much of the tech makes it feel like you need to be a committed early adopter, who is happy to be part of the development process.
For example, the screen was well a bit laggy and then sometimes froze altogether.
While this was charging earlier, it said on the screen that for some reason I was doing 139 miles an hour at one point.
I don't quite know what that was meant to indicate.
But there we are.
The menus didn't feel particularly easy to navigate either.
And initially, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto aren't available.
VW does trumpet it's voice activated system, but that also felt slow and pretty hit and miss in terms of understanding what was required.
Hello ID How can I help ?>>play Radio One [NOISE]
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Did you mean radio up?
No.
[NOISE] Please select an item from the list or repeat what you said.
Play Radio One.
[NOISE]
Line one, got it.
No.
No, no, no.
No, no
No, play BBC Radio One.
Hello Addy.
And so it goes on.
Perhaps I just didn't speak its language.>>There are other little things in here that just seem odd.
So there are only two windows which is down here but they're obviously for Windows.
Now this is trumpeted as a benefit because they've halved the number of windows which is what you do.
Now as you press something here it says rear and then that operates the rear windows.
Or if you hold it down and it flashes then you can operate all the windows at once just with one button.
But in reality, that's just more fast than having four buckles Do you know where they are and you don't have to look at, and check that something's flashing.
It's not an improvement.
The sign recognition isn't great.
And the lane keep assist, which turns on every time you get into this car.
And if you want to do it through the touchscreen, you have to press about three things to go and turn it off and then you get back in again and it's all back on again.
Yeah.
So yes, you can turn that off with hello ID, but just having to turn it off and it's really quite intrusive.
No, I didn't say hello ID.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm still thinking about it.
Please wait a moment.>> No, I don't want to wait a moment.
No.
What about actually needed something just then you can see this.
lane keep assist going along a country road or something really is pretty intrusive.
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And it's just that's not that's alright.
I don't think the rest of the cabin.
Well, it's sort of I think they've gone for a futuristic vibe but.
It does feel a little bit austere in here, a time of stress.
It's just the gray but the seats made out of 20 cents and made out of recycled bottles.
Apparently, the VI is pretty good.
I like these extra bits in here so you can get a good view and they're no big blind spots anywhere.
And it does feel relatively relatively spacious, not perhaps quite as big as I think they've been taxing but, but I also like details such as the pedals with pause and play on them.
Sadly, however, as I made my way back to the charging station in town, I couldn't shake that feeling that this wasn't a car that I would want to own.
The trouble is to me, this car just feels.
Don't descript to drive.
Every journey is forgettable frankly, it's so easy to drive that I have no interest in driving it.
I see what Volkswagen has done because the Gulf I suppose, isn't the most interesting car reliable, safe Steady, secure, dependable all these things.
It's not particularly interesting and yet, this seems like another level of disinterest.
This feels like a white good and not just because of This white interior EV don't have to feel uninteresting to drive.
I really enjoyed the hungry and I was impressed with the pole star too.
But for some reason the ID three has an extra layer of detachment that makes it hard to engage with.
Yes, it still gives a sense of personal freedom.
But most of the other reasons I like driving cars seem to be missing in this And that makes me a bit worried that this really is to be the future of cars.
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