2024 Volkswagen ID.5 GTX review

CarExpert

Volkswagen has a bunch of electric cars coming to Australia and the ID.5 is one of them. We had the chance to test drive it in Germany before the ID.5 and ID.4 arrive in Australia mid-2024.  Volkswagen ID.3 review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOItUtfSa2g  More Volkswagen content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/volkswagen More Volkswagen ID.5 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/volkswagen/id-5  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:57 Interior 04:12 On the road 07:43 Verdict 12:34  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #volkswagen #id5 #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Volkswagen is bringing a stack of electric vehicles to Australia,

00:04 and one of the ones that is coming is this. It's called the ID.5. It's Tiguan size. This

00:09 is the sporty version, the ID.5 GTX. It competes with things like the Tesla Model Y,

00:14 the Audi Q4 e-tron. We don't know pricing just yet, but Volkswagen is saying they want this to

00:19 compete head-to-head with things like Tesla Model Y Long Range, so expect it to be around that price

00:25 bracket. Now, today we're getting an early drive of this over here in Germany before it does arrive

00:30 in Australia in mid-2024 to see exactly what it's like. This is only going to be a brief review,

00:35 but it's a bit of a look at what the interior is like, what it's like to drive, and what we can

00:39 expect when it finally does lob in Australia. Now, if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of

00:42 this video, please use the time codes that are on the screen, or if you are on YouTube,

00:46 you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to

00:50 our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive a GTX.

00:55 Now, let's talk about exterior design. Volkswagen has a number of electric vehicles and a number

01:02 that are coming to Australia, so we've got the ID.3, the ID.4 and the ID.5. The ID.4 and the

01:08 5 look kind of the same, except they have a bit of a swoopy rear to them, and this one here,

01:13 the ID.5, is in GTX trim, which is the sportier all-wheel drive version. So, what do we reckon

01:19 about the design? So, if you look down the front here, this is all kind of closed off. They're

01:22 doing this a lot now with electric vehicles because most of the cooling requirements,

01:25 they have it down below here, so it means they can close all this stuff off. We've got an LED

01:29 light that joins this whole front section. Volkswagen's sister brand, Cupra, is actually

01:34 doing some really cool stuff in the logo space at the moment, so they've got their logos with

01:38 LEDs integrated into them. So, I reckon that kind of style is actually a little bit different and

01:43 something interesting, so that could be something that we see eventually coming here to the ID.5

01:48 as well. Down at the bottom here, LED running lights as well. These are also available as

01:53 matrix LED lights as well, depending on the spec, and the spec hasn't been confirmed yet

01:58 for Australia. All we do know is that it will be coming to Australia around mid-2024.

02:03 Let's jump around to the side here, I'll show you what the wheels look like. 21-inch alloy wheels.

02:07 In terms of the design, you've got a machined finish on the outside there, piano black in the

02:11 centre. 21-inch alloy wheel is pretty big, so I'll be interested to see how this actually drives.

02:17 This is available with adaptive damping as well, so it gives you a bit of a compromise that you

02:22 don't get with the Model Y. Model Y is just a passive setup, whereas this you can actually

02:27 adjust how it feels while you're driving, and that should really give it a bit more consistency

02:31 with the ride and also the ability to tailor it depending on what you're doing. You've got the

02:34 cladded wheel arches there, so people know that it's an all-wheel drive. Indicator built into the

02:37 wing mirror, camera on the side there, and then have a look at these door handles. They're very

02:41 BMW-esque, they sit flush with the body, then you put your hand inside, or your fingers inside

02:46 rather, to open that up. This is a bit of aero work they do to keep the drag down as the car's

02:51 cutting through the air. Come around to the back with me. Now, before we get to the back,

02:55 have a look at this. Drum brakes, it kind of feels like you're stepping back in time.

02:59 A lot of vehicles don't actually use a great deal of rear braking, EVs even less, but still,

03:05 drum brakes just kind of feels a little bit cheap to me on a vehicle that is going to be priced as

03:09 much as this is, so hopefully they are looking to actually put disc brakes on the rear there and

03:13 just give this a proper complete braking package, because if you do decide to go a little bit

03:17 harder, you really do want to have the availability of discs there as opposed to the drum braking

03:22 setup. Alright, let's whip around to the back. So, this is where it differs from the ID.4. You

03:27 can see here it's got a bit of a swoopy rear to it. It's got this spoiler integrated into the rear

03:31 as well. It actually looks like it could eat into a bit of that eye line, so I'll be interested to

03:35 see what this is like when we go for a drive and how much visibility I have out of the rear of the

03:39 vehicle. So, LED lights along the back here. There's actually a pretty cool start-up sequence

03:43 when you approach and unlock the car here. It does a little bit of a dance, which is cool. I do like

03:49 manufacturers that put a little bit of effort into things like LED lighting just to give the car a

03:53 bit of character. GTX badge there, and then a white Volkswagen logo, black on this lower section down

04:00 the bottom here. So, let me know what you reckon about the design in the comments section below.

04:04 Do you think it looks good? Do you think it's a pretty good alternative to the Tesla Model Y

04:08 for this Tiguan-sized SUV? Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.

04:12 Okay, so we are sitting inside the ID.5 GTX. Let's start off with the things that I'm really liking

04:20 here. So, I love immediately that there is a screen ahead of the driver. I also love the fact

04:24 that there is a head-up display as well. That head-up display also comes with augmented reality,

04:28 so while you're driving along and have the GPS running, it'll actually show arrows up on the

04:32 screen to give you an idea of where you need to turn, like on the road in front of you. It's

04:37 actually a really cool setup. And then this screen just gives you all of the vital information you

04:41 need, like your speed, your mileage, how much battery range you have left, and all that kind

04:47 of thing. So, a really good setup there, and a big infotainment sort of system plastered up the top

04:51 here. Throughout this review I'm actually going to be talking a little bit about how this compares

04:55 to my Tesla Model Y. I know I like it a little bit annoying, but it'll just give you a bit of a good

05:00 context of what this is like as a comparison to another bestseller in the segment.

05:05 Now, outside of that, in terms of your materials, so soft touch stuff along the dashboard there with

05:10 some red stitching, and then as you go down it sort of progressively becomes a little bit harder

05:14 and scratchier, but that doesn't actually look too bad. They've got these blue highlights here

05:19 that sort of match the dashboard and the doors. There is a lot of piano black around here

05:22 unfortunately, so this bottom section along here as well. So, I'm not a huge fan of piano black

05:27 because it marks easily, and you can already see here it's dusty and dirty, so it's something that

05:31 takes a little bit of time to take care of. Also on the steering wheel as well, red highlights

05:37 through there with the GTX badge. This unfortunately has the haptic feedback buttons on the steering

05:42 wheel like we've seen on other Volkswagen products. Not a huge fan of these because while you're

05:45 driving you can easily nudge them and it just gets a little bit annoying very quickly, so that's one

05:51 of those things that I think that they will change eventually given they are moving their other

05:55 vehicles to physical buttons on the steering wheel as a replacement. In terms of the rest of the cabin,

05:59 when it comes to storage, you've got cup holders up the front here. It's actually a removable

06:03 section too, so you can take that out if you want it to just be a big open space. More storage down

06:08 the bottom here including a wireless phone charger on a rubber pad, and then cup holders as you go

06:12 down with a little cubby cover as well. So, on the storage front it's all quite good here and

06:17 you've got plenty of options there with USB charging for the front and rear as well. In terms

06:22 of comfort, the seats actually look really cool. So, you've got GTX insignia up the top and then

06:27 there's like a sort of fabric material in the centre with red stitching that actually doesn't

06:32 look too bad. You've got these armrests that pop down as well for a bit of comfort driving,

06:37 so hopefully this will serve us well on our drive through the Alps and the stuff that we're about to

06:42 do. This car is actually part of a Volkswagen driving experience which is why it's got the

06:47 stuff all over the side there. We're going to be reviewing the ID.3 and also the ID.Buzz as well,

06:52 so when those reviews go live have a look at the link in the description below. Second row, what

06:56 does it look like? Well, you've got ISOFIX points on the outboard seats with top tethers. You

07:00 actually have a centre seat as well which is missing on the ID.3 and also on the Cooper

07:04 Born if you do tick a couple of option boxes. There is plenty of room in here and the thing

07:08 that I like about this cabin, it's a bit like the Model Y in the sense that there's plenty of head

07:12 room and it just makes it feel a bit more generous. This also has a cover for the roof as well which,

07:17 Model Y, it's an optional accessory and it means that if it does get hot you can actually stop a

07:21 bit of that radiant heat coming into the cabin. In terms of boot capacity, 550 litres is your

07:26 minimum and then that expands up to 1500 litres, so there's a pretty decent size boot in terms of

07:32 storage things. You get underfloor storage as well. Fortunately there is no storage up the

07:35 front though. I don't know why they haven't bothered with that but that is something that

07:40 hopefully they can integrate into this platform eventually. Okay, so we're going to kick things

07:47 off in the ID.5. Just because of the way this drive program is set up, it's going to be a little

07:52 bit scattered in terms of the way I'm talking about some of these cars and how we actually

07:57 sort of get through them. We've driven down some Autobahn, entered Austria, arrived at the Grossglockner,

08:03 paid our 40 euro toll to get up here. 40 euros, I just don't know that there's any road in Australia

08:10 that people would pay that kind of a toll to go up, but there was a massive queue to get up here,

08:14 so it shows you just how popular this is and just how beautiful and well maintained this is as well.

08:18 So it kind of feels like you're getting value for money out of that given they've put so much effort

08:22 into maintaining it and making sure that it is usable by the public. And we've started off in

08:28 the ID.5, so I thought we would go for a bit of a sportier drive here to start with just to see

08:33 exactly what it is like.

08:40 So I can see straight off the bat, brake pedal feel is great. It's got variable damping, which

08:45 means that you can set it between comfort and sport and it adjusts the ride as it goes. Steering

08:51 feel is great. You can tell that they've really focused on a comfortable tune for this that is

08:56 also sporty. If I do draw a comparison to the Tesla Model Y though, Tesla Model Y is much firmer,

09:02 doesn't have adaptive damping, but it does feel slightly sportier through corners. This sort of

09:06 reaches the limits where the tyres start squealing a little bit and you know at that point that it is

09:11 down to your sort of tyres that are sort of causing the issue here. My understanding is there is a

09:16 facelift coming for this similar to the facelift that they've done with the ID.3 and that's going

09:20 to bring with it more power and torque because they've developed a new electric motor for

09:26 the rear of these vehicles. It's 210 kilowatts, so I think that that means this will probably get a

09:31 little power bump and a torque bump there as well and that should mean that they stick a little bit

09:36 of extra oomph into it and perhaps some stickier tyres as well. Now speaking of power and torque,

09:42 this makes over 200 kilowatts of power, over 400 newton meters of torque. It's all-wheel drive,

09:47 means you have a motor on the front axle, motor on the rear axle as well, so in combination it

09:52 really sort of peps along nicely and makes sure that you can accelerate as hard as you need to

09:56 without any dramas. When it does come to accelerating, it is actually pretty impressive.

10:01 You get stuck onto the throttle and instead of it just slamming you back into the seat

10:05 unceremoniously, it actually does it with a bit of finesse and it is quite a comfortable way to do

10:10 it. A lot of these electric cars that have super fast motors, they try and sort of just pin you

10:17 back in the seat constantly and it can get a little bit uncomfortable at times. Now let's

10:20 talk about your driving range. So we left that IONITY charger at 100% and we've driven here to

10:26 the top of the Großglockner and coming down now the other side we've got 50% of battery remaining

10:34 and 138km. So it shows you that during this drive you're going to get less than 300km of driving

10:40 range out of it. This isn't something that is just here for the ID.5, this is something that's

10:45 typical with electric vehicles. Their range needs to be accurate and unlike an internal combustion

10:50 car where it doesn't matter as much, here it needs to be accurate and what they've determined is that

10:55 they'll make it dependent upon your previous driving. So given we've been climbing a lot,

10:59 driving fast, it has really sort of reflected there in the driving range and it means that it

11:03 bumps it up. During normal driving though they claim a combined economy of around 18kWh per 100km,

11:10 which is actually pretty good. It'll just depend on what it's like in the real world when you're

11:14 not going up and down mountains and when we do finally get this in Australia next year

11:18 we will test drive it the same way that we do all the other cars and see exactly how it performs

11:23 up against their claims. And it's pretty quick in a straight line, 0-100 in under 7 seconds,

11:29 which is good. You know what I have noticed as well in between Munich and here at the

11:33 Großglockner that every town we've gone through there has been charging like it shows you on the

11:38 screen here how many chargers there are and also the speed that they charge at and there's been

11:43 stacks available and that again unlike Australia shows you that they have really catered for

11:48 electric vehicles here in a big way and it means that if you do need a charger they are pretty

11:52 easy to come by and not something that you're going to have to travel miles for. Very convenient

11:56 especially given when you are in the mountains and range can be a little bit sketchy at times.

12:01 Now the cool thing as well as we've been going down the mountain here it's been adding range

12:05 to the vehicle so was it about 48% before and it's now gone up to 51% and added driving range

12:11 as well and it does that because we're using regen every time we let off the throttle it's

12:15 plumbing energy back into the battery to ensure that we can utilize that instead of it going to

12:19 waste. Normally an internal combustion car if you do ride the brakes it'll end up just using

12:23 your brakes and it doesn't use engine braking unless you specifically do. Here you can actually

12:27 retain that and generate electricity to stick in your battery for later use.

12:31 So that has been your first look at the ID.5 GTX. It is a bit of an all-rounder,

12:41 it does the performance thing, there is room inside and the ID.5 version of this looks sporty

12:47 with that sort of coupe line to the rear of it. This is most likely going to get a facelift before

12:51 it does arrive in Australia and that could mean a little bit more power and torque and perhaps a

12:55 slightly different design as well. Let me know in the comments section below do you reckon this is

12:59 a good competitor to something like a Tesla Model Y? How much do you reckon they need to price this

13:03 out for you to consider one? I'm keen for your feedback. If you did enjoy this video please make

13:08 sure you like it and you share it with your mates and if you haven't done so already subscribe to

13:11 to our channel and press the bell icon.

13:13 But until next time, auf Wiedersehen.

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