Living with a… Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer (Month 1)

A blended family of two adults, four teenage boys ranging from 12 to 17 years old, and one arthritic black Labrador. Our lives are ruled by multiple daily school runs, short hops to the train station for work, shopping in town, tip runs at the weekend, dashes to sport fixtures, a bit of simple DIY and some long trips of 200-300 miles for work.

Erin says: “This is the car for arthritic dogs and people worried about range anxiety”

What has it cost you?

Cheap as chips in terms of mileage, because we have a home charger on our driveway from Andersen, and an electric car tariff with British Gas for our electricity supply. So 200 miles of driving is costing us under a fiver when we charge midnight to 5am (our Andersen app has a timer). I fear a parking charge is heading our way, however for a hospital carpark, which will probably far exceed the amount of money it’s cost us to charge all month.

Where have you been?

We put on our big brave pants last week and drove this electric car from Kent to the middle of Wales, a five-hour drive. I reasoned that if any electric car was the one to do it in, it’s the ID.7, because the maximum quoted range from our version is 424 miles. We got 399 miles which is amazing - a decade ago, you’d be looking at 70 miles, and today, the average mileage for a new electric car on one charge is 290 miles. So the ID.7 got us there in one piece, and hooked up to a charging point at our hotel, with no need to sample the delights of the public-charging network.

What have you been carrying?

Last week it was one Labrador and one little rescue dog belonging to my cousin; they had a minor scrap in the boot but then settled when they realised there was plenty of room for both of them. The Tourer also proved a great return-to-school wagon, for multiple sports bags, a guitar and school rucksacks. And we’ve done one tip run of assorted household rubbish.

Delights

That range is a thing of wonder and banishes all anxiety about long journeys. The battery is reliable as well, dropping just 20-30 miles off the maximum range on a long motorway journey which, as a percentage of what’s possible, is relatively small compared with some of the scandalous differences between what’s quoted and the reality in competitors. I doubt we will have to visit a public charging point for the six months that we run this car.

Frustrations

Volkswagen’s toggle on the right steering-wheel stalk that controls Drive/Battery, Park, Neutral and Reverse annoys me – I keep twisting it the wrong way for reverse, and can’t see properly what I’m doing. I’m sure plenty of people find it intuitive and warm to it; I sense it depends how tall you are, and how much it’s in your line of vision.

Month in a nutshell

This is the car for arthritic dogs and people worried about range anxiety. If that specific combination is you, look no further, because the ID.7 Tourer is way cheaper than the same-sized rivals from Audi, BMW or Mercedes. It’s also one of the few electric estates out there: I hope we see more.