Living with a… Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer (Month 3)

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Month 1 – Doggy daycare Month 2 – A helping hand Month 3 – Cheap as chips

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.

Erin says: “What a relief to not have to worry about range, given this car is still easily reaching 390 miles between charges”

How much has it cost you?

We’ve been travelling round the country a lot in this car over the past month but, thanks to its near 400-mile real-world range, I’ haven’t had to spend a penny at public chargers. Instead, I’ve done all charging at home overnight on our domestic off-peak tariff . That was up for renewal this month, so we’re up from 6p per kWh to 7.9p. Given you can easily pay 80p or 90p per kWh at a rapid motorway public charger, I don’t feel I can complain. I also paid the youngest child a tenner to clean it. I feel I was robbed.

Where have you been?

This month has been a traumatic one, given my partner James was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour and Milo, our black Labrador, had to be put down. As a result the ID.7 Tourer has spent most of its time shuttling people to hospitals or vets. I thank the heavens that the ID.7 has a low boot lip because the dog had to be carried in and out of the car over a number of days, and he weighed 30 kilos. Given my partner’s diagnosis that job fell to me, and I’d never have managed if I’d had to lift him up into an SUV. A fair few of the hospital journeys have, meanwhile, been to the neurology department at Kings College Hospital in south London. What a relief to not have to worry about range, given this car is still easily reaching 390 miles between charges. I can’t begin to contemplate the stress of having to charge on the way there or home, given everything else we’ve had going on.

What have you been carrying?

Apart from a dying dog (sorry not to be cheerier this month), not much. But I wanted Milo to feel comfortable and the ID.7’s boot happily swallowed his massive dog bed, with him sprawled on top. We’ve had the usual apparatus of life with teenage boys (i.e. loads of sports kit, hockey sticks, footballs and rugby balls) and also crutches to help James get about.

Delights?

Sounds silly, but the little graphics that appear to mark the change of seasons have really cheered me up this month - we’ve gone from a sandy beach with parasols, to autumn leaves and even fluttering bats for Halloween. My boys tell me the sound system is pretty cool too.

Frustrations?

The automatic emergency braking is far too sensitive. It’s done an emergency stop when I’ve been reversing out of my drive, when I’ve pulled in next to a hedge (it thought I was going to collide with a leaf) and when I’ve been approaching a line of parked cars on the street which I was merely planning to drive past. Each time it has beeped, the LED light across the top of the dash has glowed red, and it has braked sharply. The time that happened as I was reversing out of my drive properly shocked me.

This month in a nutshell

Probably the most practical electric estate on sale: lots of boot space and rear leg-room, and a confidence-inspiring real-world range between charges. Back to top

Erin says: “The last charge I did at home, from midnight to 5am on my off-peak tariff, cost me £2.67”

How much has it cost you

The last charge I did at home, from midnight to 5am on my off-peak tariff, cost me £2.67, according to my Andersen app. That was for 33.4kWh of juice, and took four hours and 45 minutes to pour into my battery. I’d say I’ve done that once every three days this month, because I’ve been working form home over the Christmas period and the kids haven’t been at school, so every trip has been within a 20-mile radius. So let’s call it £6 a week, or £24 for the month. Which is not bad, i think you’ll agree. No public charging at all this month, it should be noted…

Where have you been?

Nowhere really, which has been bliss. The station (three miles), Sainsbury’s (two miles), grandparents with the kids (40 miles)… rinse and repeat. Plus three days of total inactivity thanks to snow and ice.

What have you been carrying?

Just people. There really is an extraordinary amount of leg room in the back for my teenagers and their massive North Face puffas. We also tiptoed down to the garden centre through the slush and ice to heft two bags of sand into the boot for our driveway. Sometimes gym-honed teenage boys come in handy, as does the boot of an estate, with its lower floor and wide opening.

Delights

Sweet little touches abound on the central display screen when you turn the car on, which are mirrored in the head-up display on the windscreen. One such, was the projection of falling snowflakes onto the windscreen when I was sitting waiting for it to de-ice. Another was the cheery announcement a few weeks ago that the car and I have now “travelled 2,448 miles together”, which is the equivalent distance to that of Route 66. We’ve come a long way…. Also, I have always moaned about the “smart” VW temperature controls which just give you options like “warm my feet” when I could do it all myself by turning on the feet graphic, which has worked well for cars for the past 70 years, but it turns out that the “defog the windows” icon is a touch of genius. All windows are defrosted and de-misted in a matter of seconds, and with no fan noise. It’s magic, is what it is.

Frustrations

If it beeps alarmingly and flashes its red dashboard LED strip at me one more time when I’m passing by a line of parked cars, I’m going to drive it into them. Enough, already. Volkswagen is not alone in doing this, and other brands are worse (Mercedes), but if every driver is turning everything off the moment they get in in the morning, something needs to change.

Month in a nutshell

Cheap as chips. Mostly on account of not going anywhere but £24 for the month? Nice.