Battery life fears debunked: VW ID.3 drops just 13km in range over 160,000km driving!
German recovery service and safety body ADAC has revealed it has been running and monitoring a Volkswagen ID.3 for four years and 160,000km and has discovered it has lost just 13km in range.
According to the independent tests involving a VW ID.3 with a 77kWh battery, the high-voltage power pack lost just nine per cent of its capacity, despite ADAC deliberately treating the electric VW hatch poorly over its life.
Engineers said they regularly topped the battery up to 100 per cent, instead of the optimum 80 per cent level, and then left it to stand for several days before another colleague would use it.
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Skewing the impressive results slightly, engineers claim the range could have been impacted more but thanks to multiple software updates rolled out over the four-year ownership, energy efficiency had gradually improved to help offset any losses.
Back in 2021, ADAC said the VW ID.3 was averaging 20.0kWh/100km on the test bench, but now four years later consumption has dropped to 18.3kWh/100km.
Meanwhile, over the 160,000km driven in the test period ADAC said the ID.3 averaged 23kWh/100km.
Similar software upgrades have seen the ownership experience improve too when it comes to charging.
When ADAC took delivery of the ID.3 charging speeds were capped at 125kW, but today using identical hardware the ID.3 can now be topped up at up to 160kW, saving more than two minutes when filling the battery from 10-80 per cent.
Even without the software, the onboard high-voltage battery has exceeded expectations, with engineers carefully charting its slow decline that saw 96 per cent of its capacity retained up until 59,000km, before it dropped to 95 per cent at 69,000km, then 94 per cent at 84,000km and fell back to 93 per cent at the 102,000km mark.
The 91 per cent level was only reached once the VW had covered 145,000km, with the ID.3 maintaining that same capacity the last time engineers checked the battery with 169,651km on the odo.
The strong performance means the VW ID.3 has come nowhere close to triggering the Volkswagen’s warranty cover, that guarantees the high-voltage battery must deliver 70 per cent of its original capacity after 160,000km or 10 years of life.
To see what happens next, ADAC has vowed to keep driving the Volkswagen ID.3 and testing its battery until it racks up an impressive 250,000km.
My wife and I own Deisel Tiguans. My Tiguan is a 2011 model with 210,000. My wife owns a 2018 model with 85,000 on the clock. We love driving them but the maintenance on the 2011 model is creeping up and it doesn’t have the mod cons like rear cameras. I’m interested in the VW ID.4 SUV. Dealer says I can get one for $69,000 with a charging unit included in the cost. I was told that it would normally cost $3000 with installation. What do you think of the car? We do a bit of driving on rough tracks but mostly drive on standard roads. How does the ID.4 stack up against the Tiguan?
We have had solar panels and are thinking about getting battery storage.