I’m at the conclusion of my summer vacation and thought I’d capture my latest bullet points in my vehicle journey. I still ride my petrol BMW R1250 GS Adventure (2022) and it is the perfect motorcycle for me.

From a car perspective our ID.3 Life was finally delivered at the end of March 2023 and has been all that we wanted after hiring one for a week and better in some regards due to it having newer software and hardware.

It has great performance and handling, really good ergonomics for me (more on that later) and range and charging work really well for us. I have a weekly charging routine based around workplace charging and in practice don’t use the full range of the battery in my weekly mileage meaning it doesn’t even need a full charge on the 7kW AC charger when I’m at the office.

The only minor gripe I have is around the supply challenges and the impact – when I decided that my next car would be the ID.3 the supply lead times were over a year and I ordered in March 2022 – at that time I didn’t have a choice of trim and in the end had my second choice of colour. In the couple of months after delivery the supply challenges appear to have evaporated meaning someone ordering now could have a choice from stock. That said, hindsight is a wonderful thing and I have the money I saved to put to another car with a nicer trim. The facelift ID.3 has now been launched and the UK can finally pick the top-sport interior (even if it is bundled in a pack).

As I do I’m looking forward to my next car which will be electric if I have a choice and I’m taking my learnings and preferences from the ID.3 and considering what I’d do next. The ergonomics are excellent for me – the extra space and in particular leg and foot room mean it is a better car for me that the Golf I drove before. The only minor issue is that the windscreen pillar cuts in to my view on certain faster right hand corners. Steering seems fine for me (even though it doesn’t have progressive) but the handling on faster country roads isn’t quite there – I’m not a good enough driver to narrow down the exact issue – whether it is roll rate or high speed damping.

The EV Market is really interesting at the moment with more and more options becoming available – unfortunately the choices don’t appear to be wider in the mid segment with prices continuing to rise for ID.3 type cars so I have more saving to do! I’m interested to see if a sportier ID.3 is launched in the anticipated ID.3 GTX. In other developments VW seem to have had a fright from the reaction of existing customers to the ID range and seem to be flinching back to more conventional looking cars. I’m in two minds about this having committed to an ID.3 but fundamentally if they deliver good electric cars then I’m still in. For me good is that I have a comfortable driving position, they are fun to drive and have good efficiency.

Other Electric Vehicles

I’m going to have our ID.3 for a few years but in the meantime it will be really interesting to see what new options emerge from Volkswagen and other manufacturers.

I really like the Polestar attitude of building a car with style and handling in mind but there was a niggle about the cabin – I enjoyed our test drive of the dual motor performance but something was out on the ergonomics for me which I wasn’t able to get to the bottom of in the short time we had with the car.

We were on holiday in Gothenburgh last week and the Polestar space was near to our accommodation so we took the opportunity to sit in the facelifted Polestar 2. Although a left hand drive car so slightly different, I found that my toes were catching the lower part of the dashboard – workeable on the test drive but it would really bother me lifting off the accelerator either for regen or swapping to brake. So that had been the issue; I have UK size 14 feet and long legs so driving position can be tricky. It may be that the design changes in the future but that rules the current model out for me.

Our local town centre had a handful of MG cars on display yesterday and it was an opportunity to sit in an MG4 – the upcoming XPower has been getting good reviews. Unfortunately I found the legroom too short for comfort – with the seat to the floor and right back. Again VW seem to have done a trick with the ID.3 and I really hope they keep a smallish EV in their range with the same legroom and ergonomics.

I see that Tesla have facelifted the Model 3 so I might see if I can sit in one of those in the future – I don’t get on with the ergnomics and seat in the Model 3 that I have tried.