VW ID.3 Electric Hatch – 125kW battery charging and 8-Year Battery Warranty
The Volkswagen ID.3 electric Hatch will be able to rapid charge at up to 125kW, and its batteries get an eight-year warranty.
It’s been declared by VW that the ID.3 is the third landmark model in their history – following the Beetle and Golf – and the promise is decent, but nothing so far has been really cutting edge.
Unfortunately, the same applies to the announcement that the ID.3 will be able to charge at 125kw using a public rapid charger, and at 11kW using a home wallbox. Which is fine, but perhaps a little disappointing.
True, there’s nothing else in its sector that can rapid charge so quickly, but with Ionity, and others like Gridserve, rolling out rapid chargers which can charge at 350kW and more, it’s a bit poor for an EV that’s yet to arrive and will be with us for years. We also wonder if this is VW’s plan for all its EVs to come.
Equally okay, but again a bit disappointing, is the warranty of eight years on the batteries.
It’s pretty much in line with what you’d expect, but the warranty only guarantees the batteries will retain 70 per cent of their capacity over eight years.
That means the range on your entry-level ID-3 would have to drop from 205 miles to less than 144 miles for you to be able to make a claim.
Would we be willing to take a new ICE car when the power on offer dropped by 5 per cent every year, or economy by the same?
Richard Butler says
I stopped and looked at a row of 3 Ionity chargers in France at the weekend, no one was using them for the time I was there charging my car on the other chargers.
I think they might have been the ones that can be upgraded to 350kw at some future date, but I think they might be only 150kw at the moment?
I haven’t even seen any in the UK yet
but if you use the argument that you shouldn’t buy a car because it only charges at a speed which is double what is currently available in the UK, becuase one day, in the distant future, there might be some quicker ones …. then on that argument, why would any bother to buy a Ford fiesta or a Vauxhall Corsa, when the same petrol is used to power an AMG Mercedes S Class or a Porchse 911 which will go much faster?
and why do tiny mums in busy city centres drive huge Range Rovers to do the school run to deliver one child?
How many fossil cars have an 8 year warranty on the drive train?
it is quite likely that an EV may do less miles on a charge after 8 years, but …
how many 8 year old fossil is probably going to do slightly less miles, or consume more fuel than when it was new?
how many 8 year old fossil cars now have a funny noise under the bonnet which is a sign of imminent catastrophic failure of one of the thousands of components in the engine, which is about to cause the total loss of the engine, and therefore make the entire vehicle an uneconomic proposition?
Trevor Heley says
It seems to me that this is another one of these articles which basically says “EVs are ok but what about this”. So many manufacturer/big oil spoilers out there at the moment trying to halt/slow the inevitable because their ancient businesses are facing an Amazon moment. Firstly we are still in the early stages of EV adoption so the majority of owners charge at home and there is still a big market for people who can do this (not flat dwellers etc). Then current EV owners despite trying to push manufacturers all the time are more worried about a charger working and not ‘ICED’ then not being able to charge at a really rapid speed (that most cars currently can’t handle). Look at sites like InsideEVS and SpeakEV to truly understand the mindset.
The main issue at the moment is availability of cars, stupid residual values allocated to EVs that are skewing the cost of ownership and a stupid government that says one thing and does another.
The relatively small numbers of EVs sold so often quoted in the press are actually not representative of the actual people who would like to buy EVs and of course when there are more available competition grows and market forces kick in.
So IF VW are genuine about their plans for the ID then those of us who do have EVs will celebrate their efforts irrespective of if their first cars cannot charge at the same speed as a Jaguar/Audi or of course Tesla.
Look forward to reading in 10 years time how difficult it is to buy petrol..
Richard Goldsmith says
The 350kw systems are completely different voltage wise and not really expected on mainstream affordable EVs. Just because it’s been done doesn’t mean it’s sensible universally.
Richard Goldsmith says
Neither the power nor the efficiency is likely to be lower if the battery degradation is within guaranteed limits. It would equate to the fuel tank shrinking which would not be such a big deal actually. So long as your daily requirement is easily exceeded which it likely is even at 140 mile range it need not be such a big deal. They are not expecting to ever replace any batteries under the guarantee unless some fault has occurred. Degradation is far more likely to be less than 10% over 3 years. It is a peace of mind attribute.
The last thing to expect is for the performance to deteriorate as this is software controlled, a big bonus over combustion engines.
Andrew Day says
When the writer wears ICE blinkers ?????
Adrian Chapmanlaw says
125kw is enough to take it from empty to full in well under 10mins.
that means you can do 150-200 miles without stopping then stop for 10 mins, and do another 150, repeat.
considering you charge at home most of the time so the only time most people will use a rapid is when on long distance drives.
are you seriously telling me that you can get in and out of a service station, have a pee, grab snacks and a coffee and get out in 10mins?
Cars UK says
An 80% charge on the smallest battery will take 20 minutes. But that’s not the point. The point is that with standards improving so quickly, and 500kW chargers about to be installed and 350kW chargers already online, it seems a 125kW limit for a car which won’t arrive until next year is delivering a car with charging standards that are already out of date.