- After its earlier “ID.Vision” concept and some pre-production teasers, Volkswagen revealed the production-spec ID.7 Monday morning.
- Like VW’s other EVs to date, the 2024 ID.7 rides on the brand’s MEB platform and launches with a single 282-horsepower rear motor and two choices of battery pack.
- Official EPA range figures are not available yet, but this new model may land well above 300 miles per charge with the larger 86.0-kWh battery pack, and hopefully somewhere competitive to the Tesla Model 3 and Hyundai Ioniq 6.
- The 2024 VW ID.7 will officially go on sale here in 2024, after launching in Europe and China.
It’s hard to say “sedans are dead” when cars like the VW ID.7 emerge.
Crossovers may be all the rage over the past several years, but cars like this are where you shop if you want the best possible all-electric driving range. Volkswagen’s new EV sedan doesn’t just pack better range than its ID.4 stablemate, but it even packs a more potent 282-horsepower electric motor at the back. The automaker invited Nathan out to take a look at the production car in the sheet metal — and you can take a closer look at their efforts below.
Apart from the power, there are a few headline figures worth taking to heart with the 2024 VW ID.7. The first is the range spec: Up to 435 miles on a charge using the WLTP standard. Now, EPA figures tend to be far less optimistic than that, but it’s clear Volkswagen is trying to position its flagship competitively to the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and the Tesla Model 3 (if not even taking a shot at the slightly larger Model S). The ID.7 will achieve the more remarkable range figure with the larger 86.0-kWh (net capacity) battery pack. A smaller, 77.0-kWh battery pack shared with the ID.4 will also be an option, which should net the car somewhere around 300 miles of range.
At the moment, Volkswagen plans to launch the single-motor model with the smaller rear pack first, similar to how it rolled out its all-electric crossover. It’s possible the company will bring in the larger pack later with a dual-motor setup, obviously netting far better performance, but today’s announcement did not comment on that configuration.
The ID.7 is far bigger than you probably think it is
So, Volkswagen’s new EV standard bearer may well compete with its chief rivals on range, at least in its rear-wheel drive spec. But the ID.7 has another trick up its sleeve in that it’s physically larger than either the Ioniq 6 or the Model S. At 195.3 inches long, it sits right between Tesla’s two sedans, while its liftback design also does a fair bit to help practicality.
As one of the larger gents on TFL’s team (not that I can throw stones), Nathan remarks just how large this car actually is when you’re standing right next to it.
Inside, there’s certainly some familiar switchgear to the ID.4, like the headlight switches, steering wheel and play/pause accelerator and brake pedals. In the center stack, though, VW fits a brand-new 15.0-inch display, packing what is hopefully a far less frustrating iteration of the brand’s “MIB” infotainment system software.
The 2024 VW ID.7 naturally gets the full suite of level 2 (i.e. eyes-on, limited hands-off) driver assistance tech. To that, the automaker adds in a standard augmented reality head-up display, while other creature comforts include massaging seats, an electrochromic “smart glass” panoramic sunroof you can switch between clear and opaque and a 700-watt Harman Kardon audio system.
We’ll know even more about the ID.7’s specs in the coming months.
Volkswagen will build the car in Germany and ship it out to Europe and China later this fall. Beyond that, we’ll see this EV flagship sedan hit our shores sometime in 2024. It’s likely this car will be an actual 2024 model, though depending on where this car launches relative to the upcoming ID.Buzz, the automaker may slide it back to the second half of the year, meaning it will be a 2025 model.
The ID.7 is one of 10 all-electric models VW plans to launch by 2026.
