• Should be cheaper to run than petrol or diesel if you charge it at home
• 100kW charging capability gives 200 miles of range in 30 minutes
• 58kWh battery size will be ample for most buyers

How much does it cost to run?

How much the ID.3 costs to run will depend on how you can charge it, and by extension your electricity tariff. Public charging for electric cars can be expensive, especially if you want to use the fastest charging technology available. But if you can charge at home, domestic supply – particularly from an electric-car friendly specialist supplier – could make running an ID.3 very cheap indeed.

Either way, at present we would expect it to cost less than a conventional petrol or diesel vehicle of similar size and capability if you’re smart with your charging, especially once you factor-in the ID.3’s impressive performance. And that’s before you consider the potential tax savings. Not least to company car drivers, where the ID.3 attracts an exceedingly low rating for Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax.

Range and charging

Two battery pack sizes are available to ID.3 buyers in the UK: 58kWh or 77kWh (that’s kilowatt hour, the standard measure of electric vehicle battery capacity). There’s one level of power since the facelift: 204hp. ID.3 Pro 58kWh has an official WLTP driving range of 265 miles, while the ID.3 Pro S 77kWh car has an official WLTP driving range of 347 miles – but it should do given that 77kWh is a large battery for this size of car.

We’ve carried out an extensive range test on the 77kWh ID.3 and found it to be most impressive. Even with the route predominantly on EV-unfriendly motorways and fast flowing A-roads, we averaged an indicated 4.0 miles per kWh. That was enough for 293 miles of running before the car was down to zero miles remaining, some way off the official figure but in much tougher conditions. Usefully, there’s also some reserve energy should you get caught short, although we weren’t brave/stupid enough to find out how much.

As for homecharging, overnight at home using a domestic wallbox and you’ll probably be ready to go with a full battery by the morning. Try the same trick with a three-pin plug and you won’t get anywhere near.

Access the public charging network, and with the faster 100kW charging system installed, you can add 200 miles to the range of the 77kWh model in 30 minutes. Entry-level ID.3s come with 50kW DC fast charging as standard, which should also give you a substantial top-up in half an hour.

Servicing and warranty

The ID.3 gets the usual three-year/60,000-mile Volkswagen car warranty – though the EV battery components are covered for eight years or 100,000 miles (whichever comes sooner).

Servicing intervals are once a year or every 20,000 miles. It should be cheaper to service than a conventional car, as there are fewer moving parts and fluids to change.

Reliability

• No recalls so far
• Too new for owners to report overall
• Lots of new tech, some of it very advanced

Reliability seems to be good, at least for the mechanical bits, although there has been one safety recall to do with the steering. And you can check the government website for up-to-date information.

Much of the technology is all-new to the Volkswagen Group, and has already had teething problems which led to the launch being delayed, especially around vehicle software. The touchscreens are an evolution of what Volkswagen’s been using, but have been advanced in many areas. We’ve had issues before, although our facelifted test car worked faultlessly.