Thursday 3rd October 2024

VW ID 7 hits almost 500 miles on a single charge

That's London to Middlesbrough - and back again. You will need to go quite slowly though...

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While far from the most exciting EV in the world (a battery-powered, Passat-style car was never likely to be), the VW ID 7 most certainly has efficiency in its favour. Back when PH compared it to a Hyundai Ioniq 6, the big Vee Dub was showing 4mi/kWh without trying very hard at all. Now we know what can be achieved with a bit of efficient driving: 6.03 miles per kilowatt hour, for 493 miles from one charge of the 86kWh (net) battery. No doubt this’ll be the time for somebody to mention how they can still get 700 miles out of a 1.9 PD, but it looks impressive for a big EV in a real world test. 

The distance reached is well ahead of the official maximum WLTP range of 440 miles. And while doing 81km/50-mile laps of the ‘Zug metropolitan area south of Zurich’ isn’t exactly reflective of everyday use, the route was said to include motorway, country roads, urban driving and hills. The experiment took place during working days last week, in the daytime, with an average speed of just over 30mph.

Not bad going for any kind of metropolitan area. It doesn’t sound like one of the mad hypermile efforts, though it will have been pretty sedate going. It wasn’t even the ID 7 best suited to the task, apparently, as optional extras like the heat pump, Comfort package, IQ.Drive assists and a Plus exterior package on this Pro S meant an official WLTP maximum score of 435 miles. 

This was all undertaken by VW Team Switzerland, with hypermiling expert Felix Egolf (yes, he drove an electric VW and he’s called Egolf) leading the charge. Eight different drivers were behind the wheel across two days of travelling, with a total drive time of 15 hours and 42 minutes. Good job the ID 7 seats are so good, especially with the Comfort package. And great news if the VW is on the shortlist for your next family car, as potentially fewer charging stops is good news in anybody’s book. But enough with the efficiency already, VW - when’s that 550hp one coming? 

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• 2024 VW ID 7 vs. Hyundai Ioniq 6
• New ID 7 GTX ‘the most powerful VW estate ever’

[blearyeyedboy]

Perfect for a London-based Uber driver?

[mersontheperson]

Embarrassingly I actually find this interesting.
I have been wondering about what speeds cars are most efficient. Does anyone know about what is the optimal model for motorway efficiency? I would like to know which car at 70mph for 2 hours makes most sense. Is it still the smallest engine hatches? Or at some point does a mid sized diesel engine and a great coefficient take over as more economical?

[ChocolateFrog]

evojam said:

Good effort but an old diesel Passat TDi blue motion smashes that with 1526 miles on a single tank at a higher 45mph average.

From about 8x the energy.

[plfrench]

evojam said:

Good effort but an old diesel Passat TDi blue motion smashes that with 1526 miles on a single tank at a higher 45mph average.

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

[Roger Irrelevant]

That is impressive. Thanks to my circumstances I'll be sitting out the EV revolution for a few years yet, but good to see stuff like this showing the progress that is being made.

[Scrimpton]

plfrench said:

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

Still not far enough for my commute to Addis Ababa towing a caravan.

[TheMilkyBarKid]

Scrimpton said:

plfrench said:

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

Still not far enough for my commute to Addis Ababa towing a caravan.

[anonymous-user]

Scrimpton said:

Still not far enough for my commute to Addis Ababa towing a caravan.

And when you get there the single charger is out of order.

[Augustus Windsock]

plfrench said:

evojam said:

Good effort but an old diesel Passat TDi blue motion smashes that with 1526 miles on a single tank at a higher 45mph average.

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

Funny you say that, my ‘73’ reg Astra 1.5 tdi Sport Tourer (the family runaround) averages 80mpg on the run between J29 M1 and Potters Bar.
Ok, overall since new is around 59mpg, but that is nearly all ‘urban crawl’..

[Firebobby]

Who cares how many miles somebody's xxx Diesel car does or did god knows how many years ago. The article is about how far an id7 went on a full charge! I once had a donkey that could walk all day on a carrot and a glass of water. It's irrelevant!

[mooseracer]

Augustus Windsock said:

Funny you say that, my ‘73’ reg Astra 1.5 tdi Sport Tourer (the family runaround) averages 80mpg on the run between J29 M1 and Potters Bar.
Ok, overall since new is around 59mpg, but that is nearly all ‘urban crawl’..

My 1.5 DIEsel Focus.


Mildly interesting to read these sort of articles (as was the Passat one) regardless of propulsion method.

[Watcher of the skies]

Would anyone believe anything that VW says?

[C.A.R.]

This stuff literally only matters to an audience who don't actually own an EV. No idea why some manufacturers are stuck in the past trying to prove a point like this - is it an attempt to lure hard-of-thinking customers over to EV?

Also; this is at a constant velocity? So hardly real-world, is it?!

[Roger Irrelevant]

Firebobby said:

Who cares how many miles somebody's xxx Diesel car does or did god knows how many years ago. The article is about how far an id7 went on a full charge! I once had a donkey that could walk all day on a carrot and a glass of water. It's irrelevant!

Until donkeys can walk for two whole days on half an apple, like my mule can, I'm not getting one.

[livinginasia]

Honestly, who cares.

The number are made up by marketing anyway.

[jmcc500]

plfrench said:

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

I dispute this by applying pedantry: the battery that contained that much energy would have added significant weight and therefore, inevitably, reduced the range.

[AndySheff]

PH said - It doesn’t sound like one of the mad hypermile efforts, though it will have been pretty sedate going.
And - This all undertaken by VW Team Switzerland, with hypermiling expert Felix Egolf

??

[braddo]

ChocolateFrog said:

evojam said:

Good effort but an old diesel Passat TDi blue motion smashes that with 1526 miles on a single tank at a higher 45mph average.

From about 8x the energy.

With the Passat leaving a trail of dirty NOx, at 10 times the quantity of the homologated emissions level, everywhere it goes.

[DaveCWK]

Not sure I see the point of this, I mean you can probably hypermile a Ferrari Testarossa to 35-40mpg if you really tried. Not very relevant to anything really.

[Baldchap]

Scrimpton said:

plfrench said:

If this ID7 had a battery that held the same energy as that car's 78 litres of Diesel (is that a standard tank size?!), then it would have gone 4,732 miles on a single charge!

Still not far enough for my commute to Addis Ababa towing a caravan.

Is there a post of the year competition?