Whether we like it or not, it’s just over three years until we can no longer buy a conventionally powered car in this country. It’s going to be 100 per cent battery-driven cars only, apart from a few hybrid / PHEV exceptions which get a reprieve until, we think, 2035. So you can expect a steady trickle of new electric cars to keep arriving in the UK.
You can’t have failed to miss the plethora of cars arriving from China, so it’s been interesting to see what the traditional firms can come up with to try and compete.
Renault has a hit on their hands with their retro-looking Renault 5…but there’s a new kid on the block which will seriously shake everything up — the new Volkswagen ID. Polo.
Styling
From a distance, you could easily mistake it for a VW Golf. It certainly fits into the Volkswagen styling which we’ve seen in recent years. Some of you may feel that it should have had more of a wow factor, but I suspect the majority of Volkswagen ID. Polo drivers will be perfectly happy for it to be rather conservative. Either way, it still looks smart and instantly recognisable.
Forking out £23,945 (Oct 26) gets you into the ID. Polo, which is a competitive price and stacks up nicely against other cars in the supermini class.
Battery Options, Performance & Range
There are two battery sizes — 37kWh or 52kWh. The smaller battery is available with either 114bhp or 133bhp, while the larger battery churns out 208bhp. Power goes to the front wheels and a 10-80 per cent charge takes around 23 minutes…decent.
What do those figures mean? Volkswagen gives you figures for both mixed urban driving and also for town driving, so if you go for the smaller battery you’re looking at a potential overall mileage of around 200 miles while VW reckons the larger one can stretch to 281 miles overall, but when trundling around town, there’s a predicted 369 miles.
The performance is good; in fact, I was surprised by how lively the entry-level ID. Polo felt. There’s certainly plenty of power for when joining a motorway. Sprinting from 0-60mph comes up in a shade over 10 seconds and its top speed is 99 mph.
A slightly higher price of £25,055 gets you into the more powerful 37kWh model, which slices around a second off the 0-60 sprint while you’ll need to find £28,330 for the ID. Polo with the bigger battery, which now has a 0-60mph time of 7.1 seconds. There’s also an ID. Polo GTi in the pipeline, which should be quick.
Driving Experience
Every Volkswagen is good to drive and the new ID. Polo is no exception. Volkswagen has the knack of making their cars effortless to drive. You just hop in and instantly feel at home.
Out on the road, the ID. Polo picks up the pace nicely. It’s extremely quiet even by electric car standards. Bearing in mind a lot of these cars will spend their lives on urban roads, VW has plainly erred on the side of comfort…and it works, although there’s still sufficient damping to allow some spirited driving. Overall it’s an enjoyable car to punt along.
Trim Levels
At the moment there are two trim levels…Life and Style…although both are also available for a limited period with Launch Edition trim which chucks in a few extras as standard. They’ll probably get relaunched under different names eventually.
Interior & Kit
The interior keeps things simple. Okay, you can tell where Volkswagen has made some cost savings, with the seats and some of the trim looking rather dull, and the materials being nothing special. It all works well though and should be hard-wearing and able to take plenty of family knocks. It’s comfy too and there’s plenty of room in the back for average-sized adults, while the boot area is surprisingly large at 441 litres.
Volkswagen has learnt the lesson of not overdoing the complexity of the central 12.9-inch touchscreen. It’s amusing in media presentations to hear that the addition of knobs and buttons rather than haptic, touch sensitive sliders is like some sort of revolutionary design move.
And thank goodness Volkswagen has gone easily on the driver assistance tech. Yes, it’s all there and works well, but you’re not constantly being bombarded with bongs, pings and flashing lights. It’s also simple to turn off stuff if you don’t want it. It’s one of the best safety assist systems we’ve tried.
Oh, and there are now four buttons for the electric windows instead of two, plus another one that allows you to select between front or rear windows. A pretty daft idea.
As for the kit, the essential stuff is all there in Life trim…air con, wireless connect for Apple and Android, rear camera, wireless charging, front and rear parking sensors, DAB radio, and voice assist. We’d stick with Life trim.
Summary
Overall, this is a thoroughly well thought out car and represents a move back to Volkswagen doing what it does best. It’s keenly priced (especially after you add in the current electric car grant), has decent range, sufficient power, although perhaps if you regularly do longer journeys, the more powerful models would make more sense; there’s the essential kit, a surprising amount of interior room, all wrapped up in a smart if slightly understated body… but I don’t mind that because it won’t date.
As versatile motoring goes, the Volkswagen Polo has always been a sensible choice. The fact that the electric version has gone far enough to challenge the opposition, shows what a thoroughly well sorted car this is. As we said at the start, this is what Volkswagen does best. It’s a winner.
words: Graham Courtney
pictures: Volkswagen
