Yahoo Autos Volkswagen ID.7 Preview Drive: Is VW's new electric sedan worthy of the name flagship?
ALICANTE, Spain — Volkswagen isn’t out of ideas when it comes to electrifying its lineup. Globally, its family of ID-branded EVs includes the Golf-sized ID.3 hatchback, the ID.4 crossover, and the long-awaited ID. Buzz. One of the empty slots is shaped like a sedan, and the company will fill it when it turns the ID.Aero concept unveiled in 2022 into a flagship sedan called ID.7. The model won’t make its debut until later in 2023, but I had the opportunity to take a prototype for a quick spin.
The word “flagship” is nebulous; it means different things to different companies. You’re on the wrong track if you’re thinking about a follow-up to the Phaeton, the underrated, Bentley-related luxo-barge developed to take on the S-Class and launched for 2004. The ID.7 will be positioned closer to the Arteon, meaning it will be big and expensive for a Volkswagen instead of big and expensive, period. It’s not being developed to compete in the same arena as, say, the Mercedes-Benz EQS or the BMW i7.
I can’t tell you much about the ID.7’s exterior design because I’m sworn to secrecy until the sedan’s official unveiling on April 17. What I can say is that, like the concept, the production model was designed to be as aerodynamic as possible. Volkswagen pegs the sedan’s drag coefficient at 0.23, which lands in the same bracket as electric sedans like the BMW i4 (0.24) and the Porsche Taycan (0.22). It stretches 195.3 inches long, 73.3 inches wide, and 60.6 inches tall, which is bigger than the American-market Passat Volkswagen axed in 2022 that was a huge car itself, measuring 191.9 inches long, 72.2 inches wide, and 58.5 inches tall. The ID.7 rides on a 116.8-inch wheelbase, while the Passat’s wheelbase checked in at 110.4 inches.
The relatively long wheelbase hints at what’s beneath the sheetmetal. Volkswagen built the ID.7 on the modular MEB platform that underpins its existing ID models. It’s an architecture designed specifically for EVs, so the company is able to experiment with different packaging solutions and proportions. This partly explains why the ID.7 has a wheelbase that’s so much longer than the Passat’s, and why it’s 2 inches taller. An electric motor is more compact than a turbo-four, but the battery hogs space in the underbody.
Using the MEB platform makes the ID.7 the first rear-wheel-drive Volkswagen sedan in many decades, but Volkswagen didn’t merely reskin the ID.4 into a fastback. The drivetrain’s core is an updated electric motor that benefits from a number of updates, including water- and oil-based cooling systems. Yes, this is an EV that you can perform an oil change on … although Volkswagen tells me the oil (which is closer to transmission oil than to engine oil) and the filter shouldn’t need to be changed because they’re designed to last the life of the car. Don’t open up an EV-only Jiffy Lube franchise just yet.
The motor’s output checks in at 282 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque, so it’s the most powerful unit in Volkswagen’s arsenal, and it spins the rear wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission. Will this motor find its way to other ID-badged EVs? Will a dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant of the ID.7 join the range sooner or later? My crystal ball answers “yes” to both questions, but this is pure speculation.
Globally, the ID.7 will launch with two available lithium-ion battery packs: the base Pro trim will ship with a 77-kilowatt-hour unit while the Pro S will receive an 86-kilowatt-hour unit. As is often the case, driving range depends on who you ask and how you drive. In Europe, Volkswagen expects that the smaller pack will deliver up to 382 miles of range while the bigger pack should power the ID.7 for up to 435 miles. However, these figures are estimates obtained using Europe’s WLTP testing cycle, which leans towards the optimistic side of the scale. The EPA-estimated numbers should be lower for both battery packs.
The ID.7’s flagship aspirations — and the benefits of stretching the wheelbase — are clear in the driver’s seat. There’s more interior space than the fastback-like silhouette suggests, and folks sitting in both rows benefit from it. I’m 5-foot-11 so I’m fairly easy to sit behind, even in a European-market hatchback. However, in the ID.7 I was able to sit behind a colleague who stands 6-foot-5 with plenty of room to spare; that’s fairly impressive. There’s plenty of headroom in both rows, and Volkswagen quotes approximately 18.7 cubic feet of trunk space, with more available if you fold down the rear seats. That’s also better than the old Passat.
