Volkswagen ID.3 Pro S 77kWh 2023 Review | First Drive

The ID.3 was supposed to ring in Volkswagen’s third era as the next generation of people’s car on its introduction in 2020. It was advertised as a spiritual successor to the marque’s cult classics, the original Golf and Beetle. The reality fell somewhat afoul, with the ID.3 appearing in practice to be a somewhat rushed emissions scandal knee-jerk with dodgy software and irritating ergonomics. But underneath the crashy infotainment, plastic fantastic trim and distracting heater controls, lay the potential for what was described. For the MEB platform – now the basis for a whole family of electric vehicles, not all under Volkswagen Group ownership – showed real promise and proved in real time the advantages of electric power over internal combustion.

Three years on and following ‘customer feedback’, Volkswagen has chosen to bring forward the ID.3’s update, with some revised cabin materials, much more stable software and a new face. Have the changes made the ID.3’s outsides live up to what’s underneath?

There are a lot more EVs on the market than when the ID.3 first made its debut in 2020. In that time, we’ve seen quite a few takes on the freedom skateboard architectures give. For what was a somewhat gawky car at launch, the ID.3 has grown into its looks, even if it’s still more ‘new Golf-Plus’ than ‘new dawn for VW’. The updates are all favorable, too.

The 2023 Volkswagen ID.3 is a good old-fashioned facelift, in that the front bumper and bonnet are new with very little else changed on the exterior of the car. The slight gurn of the original has made way for a more conventional mouth, with new more prominent air curtain vents flanking that smooth airflow around the front wheels. One thing we are very pleased with is the dumping of that strange black panel that sat stop the bonnet of the first car, that served to virtually extend the glasshouse. Now we have a nice conventional bonnet with a couple of flanking contours to add a bit of styling flair.

Around the back, what were once reflective elements in the boot lid itself are now also lights. Aside from that and a couple of new colours – this new Dark Olivine Green is giving Lamborghini Verde Draco vibes – that’s it for the ID.3 in 2023, but that’s no bad thing.

The mechanicals of the ID.3 are largely unchanged. That the MEB was always a competent platform, if not one to set your soul on fire, means the ID.3 acquits itself just fine in 2023. Just because it’s rear-wheel drive, don’t be expecting a 3 Series-rivaling drift weapon. But everything performs intuitively, with the right weighting and ratio in the steering and a decent calibration to the pedal drop. One-pedal driving comes fairly naturally, for instance. While the typical skateboard weight distribution is good, there’s still a lot of mass there, so the car lets you know when you’re pushing your luck. Changing the driving mode to Sport firms up the steering and sharpens up the throttle response a bit. That said, an imitation of the ‘Nürburgring’ mode in the Golf R, this ain’t.

We drove both the Pro and Pro S, with both coming with the 204PS (150kW) motor and the latter with the 77kWh battery, good for a 347-mile range and 170kW max charge speeds. Real-world, that’s going to be more like 280-300, which is perfectly adequate. You could drive the ID.3 that distance quite happily, too, given that this update retains the original’s plush ride and excellent view out.

Yes, this is the advantage of the ID.3 being more Golf-plus than normal Golf. It has an MPV-esque glasshouse, with a low window line and a windscreen that dives off ahead of you. That makes the ID.3’s cabin airy and pleasant to be in. Pair those attributes with the heightened quality of this update and the ID.3 steps up a rung or two. Scratchy, tinny upper door trim plastics now have some foam-fed travel when you press them. If you want a reminder of what the old one was like, feel the ones in the back. They’re almost unchanged. The new ID.3 is now animal-free on the inside, using 71 per cent recycled material.

Do we wish this update had included the introduction of proper buttons for the wheel, in exchange for these haptic touch controls? Yes. Do we wish a proper click-wheel had taken the place of the touch temperature sliders? Yes. But them’s the breaks. The drive rocker on the right hand side of the wheel stays and is pretty cool – it’s funny that this cabin gets a lot better when you don’t have that strange dystopian white trim the original was so often promoted with.

Happily too, Volkswagen has put a heavy emphasis on tech in the ID.3, not by adding crazy innovative stuff, but by stabilising what was already there and making it more intuitive. The latest derivation of the third-generation software is simpler, easier to navigate and more responsive, while the ten-inch display is now standard. Is it better? While the infotainment never crashed, it did stutter a few times. We had hoped for absolute smoothness by now. For those that want even more screen real estate, a 12.5-inch display is joining the options list soon. We’d consider waiting for that more of a ‘new car’ feel.

Any issues with the software should get ironed out without you realising too, because the new ID.3 also comes with over-the-air update capability. Trips to the dealer for improved UI be damned, you’ll now wake up to a better car whenever an update is available. Definitely new for the 2023 ID.3 is the AR head-up display, that shows your directions and even highlights the edges of the road, as well as your speed and status.

So is the 2023 ID.3 the car the original promised to be? Not quite, we fear. It’s less gimmick-ey, with less of an early adopter vibe. But the ramp-up to proper electric power is ongoing for VW. Next year, the ID.7 arrives with 434 miles of range, a 15-inch infotainment screen and newer, crisper software. Better yet, the production version of the fabulous-looking ID.2all concept is to follow in 2025 and promises to carry all of the concept’s charisma, for under £22,000. For reference, our ID.3 Pro S starts from £42,130, but with options has a £50,245 on-the-road price. Those are just two of the ten new electric models VW promises to launch between now and 2026. 

We’re moving out of the early adopter era, into an era where cars just happen to be electric. The ID.3 is still good in the ways it always was, and better in others. What was a spacious, comfortable EV with good range now has better range, better tech and better looks. It’s better than many other EVs you can buy right now for similar money, but we can’t shake the vibe, as we couldn’t back then, that better is soon to come.