So...I had my test drive in an ID3 today, and I was let out on my own with it for 20 mins.
First impressions with the seats - comfortable but the cloth on my chosen model isn't really to my tastes - I guess I'm too used to sports seats in greys and GTI/GTD tartan. I'd pay extra for Sports seats, but while I'm sat in them,I can't see them. The airplane fold up/down skinny arm rests are a bit crap. Maybe I'd need time to get used to them, but never really been a user of arm rests in other cars, except the A4's which was large and highly adjustable.
The dash plastics are hard by the windscreen (which you'd have to stretch to touch), and softer where they're accessible. The door cards are softer than the Polo's but harder than a MK7 Golf's. Not really liking the piano black door grab handles purely for reasons of practicability in avoiding fingerprints and microscratches. The haptic switches have a click to them if you press them hard enough, didn't really have time to mess with them for functionality/ease of use.
The interior size is weirdly huge. You know this is the size of a Golf (2cm wider, 1cm shorter), but 17cm taller (that's the battery pack you're sat on), so maybe think of it as a slightly short Golf Plus on the outside. On the inside it is hugely spacious- it's like being in my Cousin's Q5.
Onto the drive...I press the start button on the steering column where a manual key would go - silly place! You have to fumble for it because you can't see it -
should've placed it on view in the lower dash.
Button pressed...I forget that there's no engine noise, there's no tone to indicate everything's ready to go. I turned it off and back on again to be sure it was on (it was). I cautiously tickle the throttle as I'm half expecting some serious sensitivity and don't want to plough into the car opposite. Thankfully it crawls if you just tickle it. I get out of the car park and the silence is weird, like I'm on one of those electric trams in Amsterdam.
I get out on the open road (A19 sliproad), getting past the crawler in front of me and boot it. There's quite a pull but zero drama, the acceleration is very linear. I drove it normally between 70 and 80mph once I got there. It's still smooth and eerily quiet, a smaller whisper of wind noise. I came off the A19 a few junctions up and have a drive around the country roads near Seghill. I was able to stop and boot it from a standstill 3 times - consistently quick off the line with zero drame and linear all the way to 80.
So it's competent, pretty quick in a very usable.way, but a bit dull. This is probably the way with affordable EVs - until the batteries get light and cheap, you'll need to be spending £50k+ to get something genuinely sporty and desirable.
Definitely not a car that excites - will make a good car for the kids with plenty of interior room and rear legroom.
