ID.7 is finally here - Volkswagen's new all-electric flagship

After months of rumors, followed by months of teasing the VW ID.7 has finally been unveiled. To celebrate its first global electric car, Volkswagen put on one heck of a show that was streamed at the same time in every market where the new ID.7 will be sold in.

Volkswagen pulled all the stops - the ID.7 is a premium electric vehicle with a predicted range of up to 700km. Fast charging enables replenishing the battery in less than 25 minutes. The improved drag coefficient means better performance and the new panoramic glass roof creates the feeling of even more space.

The optional comfort seats and the top-of-the-range Harman Kardon sound system ensure passengers feel they are in a premium vehicle. The 15-inch central display takes care of the infotainment with a vastly improved user interface. The new full-color augmented reality HUD takes care of displaying all the required information. It makes the driver’s display less important and thus smaller allowing it to blend into the dashboard.

There is no doubt Volkswagen wants a piece of the premium EV market. The company has been playing catch-up and it has been stuck in the past while the competition raced away. Its current EV lineup is hardly impressive, but the ID.7 is here to change that perception.

The ID.7 has a lot of interesting features. The Wellness app can use various wellness programs that involve lighting, climate control, and sound to create the required ambiance. Drivers can choose between activities and relaxation and the car can make you feel as if you were by the sea - with the sound of waves and gentle breeze and light effects.

The AR head-up display not only shows current vehicle information, but helps with navigation and even with lane keeping. If you ever played racing games, you’ll be familiar with the direction arrows displayed on the road ahead of you - well, this is just like that but in real life.

The new voice assistant is called IDA and is supposed to make the driver’s life easier. It can control everything from windows to radio stations, from a phone to an air-con system. It can even take control of the navigation and it can recognize which passenger it is talking to and act accordingly. With VW’s rather questionable track record when it comes to user-facing technology, we’ll wait and see whether “Hello IDA” is an improvement or yet another disaster.

Of course, the ID.7 comes with the Plug & Charge service, which makes it much easier to use public DC chargers. With VW’s Elli charger network now having over 500,000 charging points across Europe, life with an electric car is getting much easier for VW owners.

When it comes to making the owner's life easier, the ID.7 can park itself. As we drive around looking for a suitable parking space, the car is constantly scanning and alerts the driver when it finds a suitable spot. Then it’s just a matter of pressing a button and letting the car do its job. The optional memory function allows the car to autonomously park itself in a predestined location. Pull up to your house, jump out and the car will park itself in the garage.

The onboard ADAS supports the usual systems we came to expect from this class of vehicle. Lane change assist, emergency braking with smart cruise control. The optional travel Assist system takes it up a notch with swarm data helping it to maintain its position on the road even with no visible markings.

The company hasn’t released any powertrain data yet, but thanks to the Chinese MIIT we know it will come with a 150kW electric motor and a 77kWh NCM battery pack. The company quotes up to 700km of range for the long-range model, which coincides with the CLTC rating.

But it gets better - at the very end of the World Premiere, we were treated to yet another teaser - GTX is coming. The company cleverly disguised the three letters in the final images of the show keeping our hopes alive. With the new APP 550 powertrain and 210kW output, the vanilla ID.7 would nearly match the output of ID.5 GTX. The ID.7 GTX may feature dual-motor APP550 with well over 300kW peak power making it the most powerful - and fastest - electric VW on the market. A title fit for the flagship.

Source