Written by Ted Welford Updated: 18 November 2024

There’s been some competition for the right to spend time with the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer but Vans Editor and Deputy Head of the Digital Hub Tom Webster has won, for now. This means its first test is being thrown into family life with all its challenges.

My days of lusting over small two-seater sports cars are on hiatus, temporarily at least, and the vehicles that turn my head are somewhat different at the moment.

I suspect I’m not alone in this though, as much of this is down to my status as a parent of two small children that has a keen eye on how much goes out of my bank account each month. The Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer that I’m running at the moment is a vehicle that, on paper, ticks vast numbers of boxes for me.

It’s big – the 605 litre boot is only part of the story, as there is a huge amount of rear space and loads of cubbyholes that can keep items out of sight for security and to stop small passengers demanding them. It’s also got an impressive claimed electric range at 424 miles.

So far I haven’t seen anything close to that on the dashboard after a full charge, but it is creeping up through the mid 300s as the weather improves and the temperature rises. Even when it was cold it was showing around 285, which has enabled an early trip to Yorkshire and back with one fast top up, but the less time I can spend mucking about with apps and public chargers the better.

Finally, it’s got a level of comfort and equipment that makes me feel as though I’m not slumming it in order to transport my small brood. Those converted-van people carriers are fine in principle, but they do make you feel as though you are compromising in the interests of practicality.

Match up

My ID.7 is the Pro S Match trim, which means that it comes with a good level of kit. On initial assessment there isn’t really much that I’m missing, with one small exception and I recognise that I’m being spectacularly picky on that front. More on that later.

The highlights of the kit that it comes with include massaging front seats, a huge 15.0-inch touchscreen with wireless connection and phone charging, 19-inch alloy wheels and front and rear Isofix points. There are a few added extras on our car, too, including the Exterior Pack Plus.

This brings a huge electronically darkening panoramic sunroof, which appeals massively to everyone in the Webster household, especially those who travel in the back of the car. They probably also appreciate the sound insulating laminated safety glass in the back too, but just don’t realise it.

The one thing I’d sort of assumed it would come with is a motion sensor under the rear bumper that allows you to open the bootlid by waving your foot around under the back of the car. Thankfully I discovered that this wasn’t something that was fitted while on the privacy of my own driveway. This meant that only neighbours who happened to be peering out through their curtains were treated to the sight of me hopping around with an arm full of bags trying to kick the fresh air under my car. Still, putting one bag down to prod a button on the boot is no major deal.

Get up and go

What I absolutely adore about the ID.7, and several of its electric VW relations, is how simple it is to get in and start driving. You simply hop in, twist the gear selector into D and, well, that’s it. It’s the same when you finish too – pop it into P and get out and it takes care of the rest. It’s like it’s in permanent standby mode. I suspect it might take a little retraining of my brain to remember to turn a vehicle off again when I end up in other cars that don’t offer a similar setup.

It’s such a marked difference to the Genesis GV60 that I ran previously, which seemed to want various parts of my biometric data simply to turn on, let alone set the seat to the right position. In the VW I can reach in and hit my saved seating button as soon as I have opened the door and it is generally far enough back for me to fit by the time I have thrown my coat on the front passenger seat and slid in.

The only thing you have to do manually is adjust the rear-view mirror, but that is a universal element. I even appreciate how quick it is to turn off the irritating (but not intrusive) speed limit warning – you can set the driving assistance menu as a shortcut up the top of the screen, so it is two quick clicks and you can creep up to 21mph without being bonged at constantly.

The other time-saving little touch that I appreciate to a huge extent is the fact that you can touch any one of the four door handles to activate the central locking when you leave the car. So many cars only let you do so on the driver’s door, but that is rarely the last door that I shut when leaving a car, having had to help a small child out of a rear door. Having to walk all the way around from the rear passenger side to the front door, or to dig a key out of a pocket that also contains an afternoon’s worth of snacks is a pain when repeated several times a day.

These small time savers might not feel like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and they aren’t on their own necessarily. But they all add up to make for a more relaxing experience by removing things you have to think or worry about. It’s made for a really smooth onboarding process.

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Update 2: On the charge

I’m comparatively new to living with an electric vehicle, so experienced chargers might consider some of my observations on the matter to be the stale revelations of the newly enlightened. However, I’ve driven my fair share of EVs over the years as well as living and working alongside the personal and professional early adopters. It’s fair to say that my experiences with domestic and public charging have been far more seamless than those of only a few years ago.

To start off with, it struck me when the ID.7 warned me that its battery was getting low and I should start looking for a charging point. The notable thing was that it did this when it got down to 20% charge, which meant that it alerted me when I had 64 miles of remaining range, and that was on a comparatively cold day. Time was when that would have been 75% of your total range. I’ve lived with petrol cars that can’t match a fully charged ID.7.

Static speed

I’ve had cause to undertake some fairly big journeys of late, heading around the country to various far-flung family members. Crucially, though, this has been without a pit stop at home in between. As my rural-based family are all still in older petrol cars, this has seen me reliant on the public charging network for a sustained period for the first time.

First stop was a small village on the Welsh/Shropshire borders, where the only option was a 7kWh connection at a local supermarket. This was unremarkable as I ended up having to plug in overnight and just leave it, safe in the assumption that any other EVs in the area would highly likely be tucked up on their owners’ driveways. Most people around there tend to have them anyway. Driveways that is.

A trip down south to Wiltshire and Dorset showed off the ID.7’s real strengths. Firstly, it has it been averaging in excess of 4.0 miles per kWh on these longer trips, which doesn’t feel too bad and isn’t far shy of the 4.4 official figure.

This certainly meant I felt confident tackling several hours of cross-country driving without factoring in a stop, which is priceless when you are travelling with younger children. Stopping wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but having the option to make the decision on your own terms is a real boost to the ID.7’s long-distance family credentials.

None of my family live within walking distance of a charger, so I knew all my topping up would be on the fast charging network and here the VW shone again with its maximum DC capability of 200kW. The BP charger I stopped at first promised it could provide up to 150kW but saw a maximum speed of 137kW which meant I made it back to 80% in just under half an hour. A second blitz at an Instavolt took me back to a similar level to enable me to make the 150-mile trip home.

This might not sound remarkable to those who are used to the joys of the public charging network, but such is the ID.7’s range that I rarely have to do anything other than plug in at work and occasionally at home. It just keeps going, and the distance between charges is making life so much easier.

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Update 3: Estates rule

There are certain cars that come in both hatchback and estate form where the former is so big that you don’t really need to shell out for the extra cost of the latter. The Skoda Octavia is one and I understand the logic behind why you might want to go for a hatch. The design means that items in the boot are tucked out of sight without having to pull across the cover that shouts ‘I’ve got something worth hiding in here!’ and some people might prefer styling that isn’t geared around boosting practicality.

My colleague Tim Pollard is also living with a VW ID.7, but his is the hatchback and he reckons this is another instance where the hatch is practical enough that you simply don’t need the estate version. I wasn’t sure I agreed, but we did a quick swap to see if a few days in each others’ cars changed our minds.

The first test came before I even set off, as I had mistakenly driven to work with my kids’ bikes in the boot of my estate. If that error had caused ructions at home then that would be nothing versus the reaction if I had returned home without the bikes, so they had to go in somehow. My kids’ bikes are small enough that I can get them into the Tourer’s boot with only one wheel removed, and given I only realised my error as I was heading home for the day I hoped to do the same in the hatch for speed if nothing else.

The angle of the boot lid meant that I needed to be a bit more mindful of the angle of the handlebars when closing, but the powered tailgate means that it was never going to cause damage to the bikes. Ultimately, the hatchback passed the test, as they made it in.

Otherwise, there was little difference between the two vehicles – they are not identical trims – Tim’s is a slightly older First Edition, while my Pro S Match has some features that I missed, even in the short time we swapped – I didn’t realise how much I love the huge glass roof in my Tourer until I got into the slightly darker cabin of Tim’s car. I also adore that you can make the glass opaque with a slight flick of a control – it’s something that the kids love as well.

Come the end of our swap, I reckon my car had convinced Tim that the Tourer was the better option . The slightly increased practicality and the smoother looks were the main reasons, but Tim also reckoned that my car was fractionally more economical. I’ve been getting around 3.9 miles per kWh while Tim’s hatch was managing closer to 3.4mpkWh.

However, the on-board computer suggested that the hatch managed 3.9mpkWh between charges after I took it, which suggests that my longer commute on A-roads suits the VW’s system a bit better than Tim’s shorter trip to the office and back.

As for me? I’ve just had my original conviction confirmed. The Tourer is more practical, better looking thanks to that extra swoosh of silver on the side and the the shape just suits it more. It continues to fit perfectly into family life.