First page design.
Site Theme
Volkswagen didn’t wait for the 4 years of classic styling before giving its ID. 4 electric crossover a makeover. Changes to the 2024 design year ID. 4 are basically made under the skin or inside the cabin. Like the recent Polestar 2 update, this update is more about making the ID. 4 a less unwieldy electric vehicle with more range. and more power.
Volkswagen was one of the first automakers to respond to Tesla while making electric vehicles viable. After the company’s commitment to diesel soared in a cloud of nitrogen oxides and black smoke, VW threw itself headlong into electrification to meet increasingly stringent fuel standards. carbon emissions. The company, which is already an industry pioneer in the use of highly flexible vehicle architectures that allow it to build cars in a wide variety of sizes and shapes with a common set of parts and tools, has implemented this technique in a variety of electric cars, all advertised under the Smart brand. Design, or DNI, name.
VW is a global automaker, but automotive tastes are not global. For Europe, VW has designed the ID. 3, an electric sedan that Americans who need the forbidden fruit still ask for, but which has received half-hearted reviews from other people who have been able to buy them. But for United States, with its adoration for SUVs and crossovers, VW has designed the ID. 4.
Unveiled in the middle of the pandemic, we took our first (albeit brief) trip in an ID. 4 prototype in October 2020. Four months later, it was time to test the production version, an electric vehicle that we proclaim “a forged effort. “”A few months later, we tested the ID. 4 all-wheel drive and visited VW’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which has been producing locally manufactured ID. 4 since mid-2022.
For the 2024 style year, the $44,875 ID. 4 Pro retains its 82 kWh battery, but its range according to the EPA increases to 291 miles (468 km), compared to 275 miles (443 km). The explanation probably seems counterintuitive if you’re only used to gasoline-powered cars, a new, tougher powertrain that makes 282 hp (210 kW) and 402 lb-ft (545 Nm). This is a 40% increase in horsepower and 30% in torque compared to the rear-wheel-drive ID. 4 Pro tested in the past.
In internal combustion engine vehicles, increasing power and torque means diversity plummets. This is not the case with an electric vehicle. The new engine features a stepped stator and a new water and oil cooling system, meaning it can cope with greater demands. Higher heat loads. VW says this is a “fundamental contributing factor” to achieving greater efficiency. Single-speed transmission parts have been optimized to reduce friction and there is a new shuttle with all-new software.
The battery can also accommodate a higher rate of charging force and regenerative braking, now 175 kW, up from 125 kW. This means that a fast rate of 10 to 80% would be worth taking 30 minutes. While we didn’t manage to drain the battery enough to verify this, a rate of 35-80% only took 22 minutes with a peak of 155kW, and just under 31 minutes was enough to achieve a 92% SoC from that starting point.
On the road, and despite its conventional design, the ID. 4 is still a pretty smart electric vehicle to drive. It has a very tight turning radius (31. 5 ft/9/6 m), which is useful in the city, and on a winding back road it sits much larger than a family crossover. A vehicle dynamics control formula shared with the newer Golf GTI is certainly helping in this regard.
I prefer Comfort mode to Sport mode; The latter makes the steering heavier even without further comment and makes regenerative braking on take-off more aggressive. The force delivery is very elegant despite the accumulation of strength.
In any of the 3 modes (which come with Eco in addition to Comfort and Sport), the ride is a bit dynamic – the US-market ID. 4s operate without adaptive dampers, so they are not replaced when you shift. And there was a bit of tire noise at high speed.
I was surprised to find that, in a temperate climate, it could average 4. 1 miles/kWh (15. 2 kWh/100 km). As it got hot and air conditioning became necessary, that consumption dropped to 3. 5 miles/kWh (17. 8 kWh/100 km), which is still an improvement over the first edition we tested in 2022.
Join Ars Orbital Transmission mail to receive weekly updates in your inbox. Sign up →