MotorTrend Testing Director
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MotorTranscript
00:00So, the Volkswagen ID.7, she'll give you a little torque against the brakes there, but
00:120-60 in a blistering 7.4 seconds.
00:17Party like it's 1998, huh?
00:22I mean, that's a respectable time for a base, midsize sedan with a gas engine, but it kind
00:29of feels like with these EVs, Volkswagen is benchmarking the past and not the future or
00:36even the right now.
00:37Volkswagen doesn't seem to be appreciating that the technology here is taking a step
00:42change, right?
00:43We're not just building electric versions of gas cars, we're building electric cars.
00:47Let that technology do what it does best, which is instantaneous torque.
00:52No worrying about getting the engine into the power band.
00:55No time loss shifting gears.
00:57Make these cars happier, torquier, faster.
01:02People will like them.
01:03There's one really cool trend that I'm seeing.
01:05I would love to see this come to the US.
01:06I have a very small digital instrument cluster in front of me.
01:09It's something like less than two inches tall, maybe six, seven inches wide.
01:13I like that because it's probably cost effective and I don't need a giant screen right here
01:19in front of me.
01:20That's a distraction, right?
01:21My eyes should be down the road.
01:22I do like my speed right in front of me, so I can just glance down and see it rather than
01:27look at one center screen the way Tesla does it.
01:30The Volkswagen ID.7 is not quick, but man, it feels solid.
01:35You hit the brakes and you're not worried about anything falling apart.
01:38It doesn't feel like it was bolted together without the appropriate torque specs.
01:43It just feels solid.
01:45It's Germanic.
01:46It's what Volkswagen has done for decades.
01:48Can I hit 100?
01:49I don't know if I can do a brake stop from 100.
01:52Can't do it.
01:53It maxes out at like 97.
01:55It's just not going any faster.
01:56All right, we'll do 60.
02:01Here we go.
02:02Figure eight.
02:11All right.
02:12Well, that was unexpected.
02:16She'll drift a little bit.
02:18She won't let you carry the drift.
02:21Well, there you have it.
02:2327.4.
02:24Not a very quick figure eight, but I don't want to beat up on it just for that alone.
02:30This car feels so much more solid than almost every one of the vehicles in this comparison test.
02:36The steering, the brakes, the structure, everything about this car feels more expensive.
02:44And yet this car is one of the cheapest, at least in China.
02:48It's something like $33,000.
02:51That's the one thing that's missing in this conversation around Chinese automakers coming to the US
02:56and threatening both American automakers and also the Japanese and European automakers
03:02that are fixtures of the US auto industry.
03:05Everybody thinks they're going to come in with EVs that have better range,
03:10equivalent performance, and are significantly cheaper.
03:14But so far, I haven't seen anything that says they can build a car that feels as good structurally,
03:20that the steering is as precise and confidence-inspiring,
03:25that the brakes and the powertrain calibration feel like they were done cohesively by a team working together.
03:32I've heard this about Chinese automakers, that their expertise really is the interiors.
03:38They'll make an interior that looks great,
03:40and they don't develop the chassis to the level that European or American or Japanese automakers do.
03:47So far, I'm finding that to be true.
03:49This ID.7 feels put together around the figure eight.
03:53It's way slower, way slower, but the engineering underneath it is really solid.
03:59That's what the Chinese automakers need to learn to do.