The golf for a new era

It is by far the most important car of the year - and not just for VW, but perhaps for the entire industry. Because when the Lower Saxony finally start selling the ID.3, they will kick off the next big wave of electrical innovations. And there is a lot to suggest that the first large-scale electricity from Wolfsburg will be at least as important as the Golf. Firstly, because with its compact format, conventional driving experience and a starting price of 39.995 euros and later even just under 30.000 euros, it has what it takes to become a bestseller. Especially if you also deduct the 9.000 euros subsidy and the free electricity for the first year. And secondly, because just like his conventional cousin, he will head a large family: As the first car from the so-called modular electrification kit MEB, he is at the top of over 30 models from VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda, from which the group to Will sell more than 20 million copies by the end of the decade. If that works, electromobility even acts as a mass movement.

ID.3 - The First Edition at the start

It starts with a "First Edition", which can be ordered immediately by the 37.000 registered interested parties and then by anyone in four weeks, and which is to be delivered with the same graduation from September. Its engine - mounted in the rear for the first time since the Beetle - has an output of 150 kW / 204 hp and the battery of the first series charges 58 kWh, which should be enough for 420 kilometers. A version with 77 kWh for up to 550 standard kilometers and a 330 KWh model designed for 45 kilometers, with which the basic price should fall below 30.000 euros, will follow later. Less the subsidy, the ID.3 ends up almost exactly at the base price of the Golf, which VW is currently selling from 19.995 euros.

To make the ID.3 a new era of golf, VW makes it extremely easy for those changing over. The ID.3 differs significantly from the Golf and somehow looks to the future without scaring the more conservative customer base like the BMW i3 did. But not only the price is comparable after deducting the funding, the driving experience also seems very familiar.

Rolls and rolls and rolls

On the one hand, that's good because you don't feel anything from the higher seating position or from the estimated ten hundredweight for the battery that is stowed in the floor of the car. And where other Stromers make a fairly synthetic impression, the ID.3 also creates a close bond between the driver and the road. But on the other hand, that's a flaw. The VW can hardly offer the one-pedal feeling that is so popular with many e-drivers. In the standard program, it rolls out endlessly when you take your foot off the accelerator pedal. And even if you set it to "B" for Brake and thus increase recuperation, you hardly notice the delay. If you want to stop at a foreseeable distance, you have to apply the brake - even if it of course first uses the electric motor for energy recovery before mechanical deceleration occurs.

Ghostly silence in ID.3

Apart from the ghostly silence and of course the start, which makes every GTI green with envy in a sprint of 3,4 seconds from 0 to 60 things, you notice the biggest difference when racing and when maneuvering: With the former, because the electronics pulls the plug at exactly 160 km / h considering the range. And with the latter, because the wheels can be turned further in the bow without a disturbing engine, the ID.3 has a noticeably smaller turning circle and is much easier to get around the corner.

A lot of wheelbase helps a lot

While the driver feels more reminiscent of the Polo than of the Golf, the backbenchers think of the Passat on the first tour into the future. Because although the ID.3 with its 4,26 meters is even slightly shorter than the Golf, it has 13 centimeters more wheelbase and therefore offers much more knee room at the rear. And even the trunk, at 385 liters, is a touch larger than that of the old king of the compact class; That is why the Lower Saxony quickly saved themselves the “Frunk” in the bow, which is mainly known from Tesla.

It speaks to the driver

There is no comparison for the new operating system, which makes the Golf 8, which is often overly scolded with its many sensor surfaces, sliders and touch bars, look old again. At least in their own ranks. However, if you let your gaze wander a little, you will be reminded of the BMW i3 by the radically reduced cockpit with the large touchscreen in the middle and the small display behind the steering wheel - especially if at some point you still have the selector lever behind the valance discovered for the automatic entrance, which grows like a mushroom from the screen frame. The only really new thing is the large light strip under the front window, through which the ID.3 communicates with the occupants through color pulses: blue for navigation instructions, red for warnings, green for incoming calls and white when the voice control is listening.

Free update does not help against cost pressure

But the ID.3 still has two new experiences in store for VW customers - and those are not the best. The Stromer, evidently developed under enormous cost pressure, frightens with a material appearance, especially in the lower area of ​​the dashboard and in the rear, for which developers and project managers would have been furiously chased from Wolfsburg three or four years ago. And now that the engineers have bundled all of the electronic functions in just two instead of many dozen control units, there is still a problem with the software and the first copies of the ID.3 will not offer the full range of functions. For the time being, the “first movers”, as VW calls their customers in the German of the New Era, have to do without parts of the head-up display, the smartphone integration and the parking robot. But unlike against the many hard plastic, a free update, which VW is promising during the course of the year, helps against it - and in return cancels the first three leasing installments.