Volkswagen ID.7 – ride and handling
The ID.7 feels its size and weight and will never be a driver’s pick, but it meets its brief well. The tweaked GTX is our pick of the bunch
Based on the same modular MEB platform as the rest of the ID range, the ID.7 feels familiar. Progress is easy to make, with its steering calm, if light and lacking in feel, and ride on the smaller wheels and 50-profile tyres is good for a car weighing 2172kg. Push on though, and its mass has its drawbacks.
On the trickiest of roads the ID.7 never quite settles, struggling to manage its mass, with body control and front end response lacking – this isn’t a car that wants to be hustled, but then that’s not its brief. Spring rate feels high in all of its modes and bigger bumps prove a challenge for the chassis to absorb, but for motorway miles and low speed town runs, it’s a comfortable place to be on the whole.
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You’ll never reach ludicrous speeds in an ID.7, but given the weight at play, you’d assume powerful brakes would be a priority. Not so with the ID.7, with drum brakes fitted to the rear. Regenerative braking will cover a significant portion of the load in normal driving (even if it’s not strong enough for one-pedal driving), but when you need to use the pedal, it doesn’t inspire confidence – even in the GTX, the pedal is long and grainy in feel, with the ID.7 requiring some significant pedal pressure to achieve the deceleration you’re looking for.
