So what makes the ID.7 a Passat replacement? Well, while Volkswagen is keeping most dimensions under wraps, the ID.7’s 2.97-meter (117-inch) wheelbase is only 20 mm (0.787 inches) longer than that of the Hyundai Ioniq 6’s and roughly 167 mm (6.57 inches) longer than that of the outgoing Passat. That puts the ID.7 firmly in large family sedan territory, which should give Volkswagen an early EV entry into America’s favorite segment of passenger car.
So what details can we pick out through the camouflage? Well, the lamp silhouettes look largely unchanged from the ID.AERO concept we saw last year, but the front bumper seems to ditch the LED daytime running lights in favor of aero-friendly air curtains. The rear bumper’s also different from the concept car, featuring a taller diffuser-style trim piece. Production-spec door handles look identical to the recessed electronic latches of the ID.4, while the mirrors also look like ID.4 bits. Overall, the ID.7 looks faithful to the concept and should be a fairly handsome sight on the roads.
The really big news is on the inside of the ID.7, where Volkswagen seems to have fixed some of the infotainment clusterfuck affecting models like the ID.4 and GTI. While temperature and volume are still controlled by capacitive-touch sliders, said sliders are now illuminated so they can actually be used in the dark. What’s more, climate controls including heated seats are now a static top-level bar in the infotainment, a massive improvement over being buried in a sub-menu. That’s not to say things are perfect, but it’s good to see workarounds for existing gripes. Unfortunately, Volkswagen hasn’t addressed the stupid capacitive-touch button for the rear windows, but the infotainment and climate control upgrades are a good start.
Speaking of climate control, the ID.7 inherits power-adjustable air vents from models higher in the Volkswagen Group food chain. While this sounds like a pain in the ass, it does come with one massive benefit fans of ‘90s Japanese luxury cars will know and love – the vents can oscillate. Not just side-to-side, but also up-and-down to send air everywhere, plus said vents can auto-adjust for special voice-activated climate programs. If your hands get cold, the ID.7 can flip on the heated steering wheel and direct hot air to blow on your hands, which sounds excellent for anyone with arthritis or Raynaud syndrome.
The reasonably tight frontal area of a sedan often benefits range, and the Volkswagen ID.7 is targeting around 435 miles (700 km) of range on the optimistic WLTP cycle, or around 56 miles (90 km) longer than the longest-range Hyundai Ioniq 6. That should also blow the Tesla Model 3 out of the water, as its longest-range configuration is rated for 382 miles (614 km) of range on the WLTP cycle. It also surpasses the Tesla Model S, which gets a WLTP range rating of 634 km in its longest-range configuration. While WLTP figures can’t be directly translated to EPA figures, achieving this 435-mile target should make range anxiety virtually nonexistent. Volkswagen hasn’t yet divulged how it plans to pull such range out of the ID.7, but it’s reasonable to assume that a combination of battery tech and aerodynamics may have something to do with it.
Expect the ID.7 to go on sale in America in 2024, which means that we’ll probably see it with the camo off sometime in the next year and a half or so. I’m incredibly excited for more options in the mainstream electric sedan market as not only do their profiles and frontal areas benefit range, typical sedan-like hip points really highlight the low centers of gravity that EV platforms have to offer. (Photo credits: Volkswagen)
The Volkswagen ID.AERO Is Coming To Save The Large Sedan Using The Power Of Electricity Here’s What The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 Is Like In Person And I’m Happy To Say It Has A Frunk And No Touchscreen Glovebox Opener 2023 VW ID.Buzz First Drive: Why This Electric Van Is So Important For Volkswagen And For EVs Overall The Volkswagen ID.XTREME Concept Is An Off-Road EV Packing 3D-Printed Flares And Special Noises Volkswagen Norway Developed A 12 MPH Motorized Office Chair With Lights And All The Gadgets Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage. Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member. -Extremely weather-privileged to not experience winter or -Don’t care that they lose ~30% of their range in conditions that millions of people experience for 3 months a year, including the most-travelled holidays. I can promise that a lot of the same folks would be screaming bloody murder if their ICE car went from 50 to 38 mpg or from 25 to 19 mpg every winter. As for thorough cold weather testing, Scandinavian sources have done some, but despite their reputations, the populated parts of Norway and Sweden don’t have anything like the climate of the US Midwest. Knowing range loss at 0 deg C is helpful, but not sufficient for those of us who regularly see below 0 F. It would be interesting to see how EPA and WLTP ratings work, though. If nothing else, it would help us understand why those ratings are often very optimistic. A car with half the mass and 3/4 the frontal area with a slightly lower Cd value than the Lucid Air should get 7 miles/kWh in the same 70 mph cruising speed conditions, which means you can now get an acceptable real-world 200 mile highway range with a sub-30 kWh battery pack, which would allow the cost to be kept low enough that the car could be in the sub-$25k price range. The Mercedes Vision EQXX concept car demonstrates similar efficiency to what I propose, while being much heavier than what I propose due to its 100 kWh battery pack size to get a claimed 620 miles range at 70 mph. Its drag coefficient is 0.17, the same value as the 1996 Solectria Sunrise, a car that had a real-world 200 mile range on a 26 kWh pack of NiMH batteries. WLTP test on the other hand is the same for all OEMs. Even though the range may not be realistic, you can at least use it to compare between models. https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a24487598/volkswagen-golf-jetta-passat-polo-name-origin/#:~:text=The%20Golf%20refers%20to%20the,named%20after%20the%20sports.%20.%20. VW should find some fresh inspiration for naming, it helps with marketing for sure, and following Tesla’s lead on everything is questionable. Skoda’s Enyaq is not a particularly great option FWIW but Skoda never was good at naming TBH. This isn’t a knock against the IDwhatever. Just be prepared when physics does its thing. One of the hidden benefits of Tesla’s impending doom is the fact that other manufacturers might finally stop copying their more ridiculous features. Their interiors are like a corporate office park and literally no one outside of a few tech bros wants their entire vehicle to be controlled by a damn tablet. It’s not THE FUTURE, it’s a fad. ID.10T (turbo model LOL, no really Porsche has a Taycan turbo) ID.10M ID.HO (High Output for ludicrous mode but the backup camera is a potato) ID.Clare ID.Check They should just make it the next gen Passat, or at least use a real name instead of just ID.numbers Actually, reviving the Quantum name for an EV sounds cool.
