The steering was responsive, the shocks mostly soaked up all the bumps in the road, and the acceleration was pleasantly torque-y like you would expect from a rear-wheel-drive electric motor. But the ID 4 wasn’t showy or demanding about any of it. The good thing about this car is that it’s nondescript but not boring. It looks like a typical VW with a few futuristic flourishes. I received no second glances from passersby and was able to blend into my environment, which typically isn’t the case with a new EV.
While driving, you would expect a low-grade motor whir common with EVs, and you’d be right. After all, there was no noisy combustion under the hood to radiate throughout the vehicle’s interior. As you accelerate, the motor definitely emits a higher-pitch sound, but not distractingly so.
Thanks to a narrow A-pillar and a stubby front end, I felt like I could see everything I was supposed to from the driver’s seat.
What else about the screen? It was angled slightly toward the driver, so it felt accessible without being distracting. The interface was pleasant and easy to navigate. And the placement of the home button on the left-hand side of the screen felt intuitive and easy to access.
The voice assistant, which is activated by saying “Hello, ID,” left a lot to be desired. In its press materials, VW claims that the ID 4’s functionality is “almost completely controlled by touch or voice control.” But I found myself having to repeat myself a lot, and I was constantly getting tripped up by the long lag time between the wake words and actually saying what you want the assistant to do. VW says the voice assistant is still in beta and will be much improved when the ID 4 starts shipping to customers in early 2021.
Again, it was only a brief test, but the ID 4’s advanced driver assist system appeared to be highly capable, with adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assistance, blind spot detection, and all the bells and whistles typically found in most new cars.
