EV

First EV Road Trip in the VW ID.4

As an early adopter for technology and cars, I took delivery of one of the first VW ID.4 in March last year. We have yet to do a long road trip until now. We drove from Lexington Massachusetts to Charlottesville Virginia and back for a college visit. These are the take aways:

  • Driving speed matters to range -- we were driving average of at least 75 MPH and the range drops notably. The car seems to be able to compute / update the range estimate. The actual result is that we needed to charge to a higher percentage, State of Charge (SoC) sometimes.

  • While the stop and wait for charging is new, I personally do not mind it at all. It helps with bathroom and food breaks, as well as stretching the legs.

  • The ID.4 is really comfortable for long trips. The spacious interior, the lower noise level, and the ease of driving. Our other car is a Kia Telluride. I find the ID.4 easier to drive, and the Telluride is already a very good car.

  • - Took me awhile to figure out the UI for ABRP Pro app on my iPhone. I need to export the charger location to Apple Map to get good driving direction. Using the map inside ABRP did not work well for me.

  • - The chargers at these Walmarts and other locations in CT, NY, etc are much newer and nicer. My "local" Electrify America station at the Burlington Mall is much worse -- only one charger get full speed, and one out of three often is not working.

Here is a video of the trip -- this is a long video.