I need a true SUV that can haul things when needed, has a reasonable highway range of over 250 miles, and that is “reasonably affordable”. I looked at the Tesla Model 6 and all of the Hyundai offerings including Kia and Genesis. No other manufacturer had models that fit those requirements, and that was available before 2023.

Here’s why I chose the ID.4:

• True AWD for under $50k after tax (including tax credit).

• Free charging for three years. Can’t beat that.

• 255 miles per charge means achievable 200 miles at 80%.

• Built in tow package.

• Spacious interior, quiet ride. Very little outside sound.

• Simple, clean dash and infotainment. Perfect balance of minimalist instrument panel, infotainment screen, and on-wheel controls.

• Very sturdy build - particularly compared to Tesla.

• Reasonable ground clearance.

• Reasonably fast charging. I did 3% to 78% in just under 30 minutes at 50 degrees temperature.

I few issues about the ID.4, most of these are well-known.

• Quirky Infotainment system.
  
  Personally, I don’t use it. I use Apple CarPlay which integrates well.

• Almost non-existent software updates.
  
  None of this affects my current usage but I think it frustrated some early adaptors.

• The non-Tesla charging system is currently insufficient and unreliable - particularly for road trips.
  

Others considered:

Tesla Model 6

Good

• True SUV

• Excellent tech stack

• Unbeatable charging network

• Performance, sorta

• About 30~40 miles longer range

Bad

• More Expensive even with recent price cuts

• Turning radius

• Poor build

• Hard ride

Ioniq 5 / Kia / Genesis

Good

• Fast charging

• Cool interior

• Excellent engineering

Bad

• No rear wiper

• No tow package

• Funky exterior (Hi5)

• No tax rebate

• Low production / high demand = dealer markups

• Questionable service

You can preheat or pre-cool the car before getting into it, using the VW app. Also turn on the defog.

Warning: This will definitely use up battery if your car is not connected to a charger. Best practice is to do this when your car is still connected to the charger, so that heating or cooling does not consume battery.

Again, from the app. Sometimes your ID.4 can lose estimated range overnight if the temperature drops. Check and charge.

The app will pinpoint where it’s parked. Very useful.

Check whether Auto Hold is on or off. It’s important to know. It’s great for keeping the car from creeping forward at stop lights, but less so for parking in tight places. See separate entry under “Cool Things.”

Set to “unlock when approaching” if you want the car to easily unlock as you approach the car. This is handy but has some disadvantages:

If your keys are close to the car, it will always get unlocked.

After you leave the car and lock it, if you stay near the car for too long, it will then unlock again. (You can set the amount of time before it times out.)

By default, the seats will automatically slide back for you to get in, then once you close the door, the seats will move back to your default position.

I really like this.

Sometimes the seats do not slide back forward. If so, just tap the seat memory button on the left side of the seat.

Tap and hold down your seat memory button (left side of drivers seat) to make sure that the seat goes to your favorite position.

You can reset this easily by holding the ‘Set’ button for a few seconds then tapping ‘1’ or ‘2’.

Readjust the mirrors manually (Plus series will save the mirror settings).

Put your foot on the brake. The car should “wake up.” Wait until the Infotainment system has started up, before driving.

If using CarPlay or Android Auto, make sure your mobile device is connected. I just drop mine into the vertical charge pod with the back of the phone facing the back ‘wall.’ You can confirm it is charging by checking the icon on the Infotainment screen.

This is the easiest part, and one of the reasons I love the ID.4. Turn the shift knob forward to go into Drive, backward to go into reverse.

After turning the knob forward to drive, you can turn it forward again to move into ‘B’ (brake) mode. This switches on the regenerative braking.

This automatically engages the regenerative braking every time you take your foot off the accelerator. This is very close to what others call ‘one pedal driving.’ It’s also quite useful when driving downhill, particularly on mountain roads, as it gives the same ‘feeling’ as downshifting.

In D Gear, the car simply coasts when you take your foot off the accelerator. In many cases, you can get better ‘mileage’ by coasting, than by using B Gear which slows you down each time you take your foot off the accelerator. Also note that in D Gear, regenerative braking will be applied every time you put pressure on the brake pedal. It only actually uses the brakes when the car is slowing beyond its maximum regenerative capacity.

You can see this visually by watching the green line in the instrument panel.

Works well for both parallel and back-in parking. Doesn’t always find the place correctly but once it does, it knows exactly how to park. Useful for getting you exactly into the middle of a tight parking space.

• Engage parking assist by tapping on the “Assist” button on the bottom of the Infotainment panel.

• Once Parking Assist finds a space for you, stop. Press the ‘accept’ button on the top right of the screen.

• Follow the instructions - which usually means take your hands off the wheel and ease the car into gear.

For more info, check out these videos the first time I tried it out:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDjyBZD70c3JBh2Exvt__9ghAwDAa4G_j

I haven’t tried this as I have an extremely complicated parking space to get into. I suppose it works fine in normal spots that are reserved for you.

Manual parking is easy with the three guides. Follow the yellow guide exactly, then use the green guide for the last part. If you are parallel parking, it will align you about two~three inches from the curb.

There is a slight indentation on the door handle. Touching this locks the car. You can train yourself to automatically have your finger on this when you close the door so it’s semi-automatic.

• Tapping the indentation locks the car and you’ll see the lights flash in confirmation.

• Merely walking away from the car does not lock it.

FROM THE USER MANUAL, PG 240

1. For daily usage VW recommends setting the charging target at 80%. This can extend the service life of the high voltage battery. Before long trips VW recommends setting the charging target at 100% for the highest possible range

2. The battery charge level should not remain below 20% for extended periods of time.

3. If the high voltage battery has been charged to 100% start driving as soon as possible.

4. If the car will be unused for longer then 12hrs, leave it parked with a battery charge level of at least 30% and no more than 80%..example airport long term parking.

5. Avoid regular rapid charging with Direct Current (DC) due to high charging current.

ELON MUSK:

It’s not a big deal. Charge to 90% to 95% & you’ll be fine. At 100% state of charge, regen braking doesn’t work, because the battery is full, so car is less energy efficient.

• From his Twitter feed

INSIDEEVS.COM

Some EVs like the Audi e-tron and Volkswagen e-Golf have a built-in buffer, meaning when you charge to 100 percent, the battery pack is not actually at 100 percent. Instead, there's an unusable reserve to help limit battery degradation.

https://insideevs.com/news/368097/video-60-percent-ev-charge-limit-benefits/

LUJACK HUYNDAI:

Fast charging will not damage your battery. Electric cars use lithium-ion batteries and will deplete over time, but they won’t be damaged when continuously charged at high power.

https://lujackhyundai.com/service-and-maintenance/should-i-charge-my-car-battery-to-100-percent.html

Generally this is best for your car because frequent fast charging (see next) over 80% can adversely affect your batteries lifespan.

“It's safe to occasionally charge to 100% if you are going to nearly immediately start driving and drop off 100%. Charging to, and remaining at, 100% often will quickly degrade your battery, regardless of the speed of charge you use to get there.” - Bill

Most people get an L2 charger installed at their home, with a 240 volt / 40amp charger (which uses a 50 amp breaker). This will charge your car fully within 10~12 hours.

It’s also a good idea to get a portable charger with cord, so that you can connect to other peoples 240-volt outlets. The portable charger from VW is about $350, has a 20 foot cord, and is good up to 30 amps which can fully charge the car in about 14 hours. Most household 240 volt outlets used by a drier, can easily delivery 30 amps.

FROM THE APP

When plugged in, you can Start or Stop a charge at any time, from the app.

FROM THE INFOTAINMENT CONSOLE

If you have software 3.1 or above, and if you are charging from a location that you have saved in your Charging Locations, then you have four types of charging available to you. This from Keith in my FB group:

1. Immediate mode

2. Departure Time mode.

3. Preferred Time mode.

4. Direct mode.
   

DEPARTURE TIME CHARGING

You specify the time you want it to be charged by. It will calculate when to start charging based on the state of charge and the target state of charge (80 percent).

DIRECT CHARGING

is when the state of charge is less than the direct charge amount when you plug in. So in this example, if my state of charge when I plug in after driving is less than 20 percent it will start charging immediately up to 20 percent and then turn off. It will turn back on when it needs to so it will get to 80 percent by the specified departure time.

Preferred Charging Time works differently.

DC Fast Chargers (DCFC) are generally best used for road trips or when you are away from your home charger. With your ID.4 you will get three years of free DCFC charging at Electrify America; see the section below.

It is a good idea to download the apps for the DCFC providers along your route. For example Electrify America, Greenlots / Shell, Chargepoint, and others.

CHARGING SPEEDS

The speed that your car charges depends more on external factors than on the charger type/speed. Far more important is:

1. Temperature - above or below 70 degrees, the speed slows down to as much as 40 k

2. % State of Charge (SOC). Your car will charge much faster below 40% and will slow down at an increasing rate as charge % increases. It can take as long to charge from 80 to 100%, as from 0 to 80%.

3. Temperature of batteries. This is related to outdoor temperature but your batteries will actually warm up during a charge. Thus it is not uncommon to see your rate of charge increase all the way to the end of a charge, if you are starting cold (without having driven) and if the outside temperature is cold.

Anecdotal: I have reached over 188 kW on a 350kW charger, even though my ‘23 ID.4 is only rated to 175.

This app is a crowdshare app in which users report on the status of different DCFC’s around the country. It is very useful particularly for road trips. Return the favor and check in each time you charge your car.

FREE CHARGING

At least through 2023, you get three years of free charging with EA. Currently you are limited to 30 minutes per session with a 60 minute pause between sessions. That means you cannot unplug then plug back in. But you can leave the plug in and you will simply get charged for anything over 30 minutes. I did this regularly on my road trip and only ended up paying a few dollars here and there to get higher % charges when needed.

CHARGER TYPES

There are three basic charger capacities for CCS chargers: 50, 150, and 350. The 2021 and 2022 ID.4 have a max capacity of 135 kW and the 2023 ID.4 maxes out at 175 kW.

This means that technically you can use any of the three chargers - but note there are other EV’s such as Huyndai/Kia/Genesis and Rivian, that can charge at much higher speeds. So if you see one of those cars pull in, it’s best to let them use the 300 kW charger.

Here’s the “Fool Proof” way to charge using the app:

1. Connect the charger cord.

2. Open the EA app.

3. Find the charging station location and locate the specific charger.

4. Swipe to initiate charge

Here is a “faster” way to get charging, because you can skip steps 2, 3 and 4 above.

1. Plug in.

2. Hold your Phone or Watch next to the NFC reader.

For both you will need to have the EA ‘Card’ saved to your Wallet (iOS).

Ending the Charge

• End the charge from your EA app, or

• End the charge from your myVW app, or

• End the charge from the Infotainment display in your car.

• Note: The EA app does not have a way to end the charge automatically after 30 minutes.

1. Once the charge has ended, the light on the side of your ID.4 outlet should turn white, indicating that it is unlocked and you can remove the charger cable.
   

2. Firmly press the button at the top of the charger unit, then pull to remove it from your ID.4.

Alternatively you can do a manual disconnect by opening the little ‘door’ in the right side wall of the trunk (pretty much where you’d expect it to be) and pull on the round pin.

If the charge cable does not automatically disconnect from your car, you can force it to disconnect simply by pushing the ‘unlock’ button on your key fob, two times.

The charge speeds of 50, 150 and 300 are just for reference.

Rarely does your ID.4 reach the maximum speed shown. The speed that your car charges depends more on external factors than on the charger type/speed. Far more important is:

1. Temperature - above or below 70 degrees, the speed slows down to as much as 40 kW

2. % State of Charge (SOC). Your car will charge much faster below 40% and will slow down at an increasing rate as charge % increases. It can take as long to charge from 80 to 100%, as from 0 to 80%.

3. Temperature of batteries. This is related to outdoor temperature but your batteries will actually warm up during a charge. Thus it is not uncommon to see your rate of charge increase all the way to the end of a charge, if you are starting cold (without having driven) and if the outside temperature is cold.

Anecdotal: I have reached over 188 kW on a 350kW charger, even though my ‘23 ID.4 is only rated to 175.

It’s a bit of a wild world out there. Generally you should limit a single charge session to 30 minutes if others are waiting, unless you absolutely need the extra kW’s.

• Try not to use a charger that has a higher capacity than your ID.4

• If all chargers are taken and you want to ‘get in line,’ one way is to pull up behind another car that is charging, and put your blinkers on. This tells others that you are waiting in line.

• It is less obvious how to ‘get in line’ behind more than one car that is charging, but you can easily check to see the charge status of all cars that are charging, so you can get in line behind the car that is closest to the end of its charge.

Your main options are VW, Google, and Apple. ABRP also provides a map but it is better for route planning, not navigation. A few things to consider:

VW Navigation

Advantages: You can view the individual navigation instructions in the small instrument cluster, which is extremely useful because you don’t have to take your eye off the road. Also, the Light Bar telegraphs those directions which is super cool (and useful).

Disadvantages: Often gets the directions wrong, does not adjust to traffic or road conditions.

Apple Maps

Advantages: You can also view the individual nav instructions in the instrument cluster if you are using CarPlay. Also when using Electrify America to find stations, it will placer them directly into Apple Maps. Easy to report and view road issues and obstructions.

Disadvantages: Also not as quick as Google to suggest alternatives and sometimes gets the route wrong (getting better). No Light Bar nav.

Google Maps

Advantages: Best routing and route updating in response to road and traffic conditions.

Disadvantages: Cannot view on the instrument cluster or on the Light Bar.

Indispensable tool for route planning, less useful for navigating.

ABRP

• Plan out your trip using the plethora of filters. Then ‘share’ the map to Google or Apple for actual navigation.

• Refer to the elevation profiles to help get a better idea of how you are ‘doing’ on mountain roads. Just tap on any point in the route and you’ll see an elevation profile between the two closest points on the map.

• Once you have shared to Google or Apple, use those for navigation. Check back with ABRP regularly to make sure you re ‘on target’.

Electrify America App

I use this on CarPlay to locate EA stations and - importantly - to get up-to-date information on availability of chargers at each location. This allows you to easily haver a ‘Plan B’ in place. Once you have selected a charging station, you can add it to the route in your Apple map.

Unfortunately you will always need a ‘Plan B’ when driving, particularly road tripping. My first option is to always find a second EA charger nearby the first planned one. My second option is to use Plugshare to find other chargers nearby.

This function automatically keeps you at the speed you set, and adapts that to traffic immediately in front of you.

On the left side of the steering wheel:

1. Press Set to start.

2. Touch the ‘car’ in the middle, then slide your finger up or down to adjust the relative range from the car in front.

3. That’s it.

Note ACC does not always work, for example if you are on a curve or sometimes with smaller moving objects like people and bikes.

This function keeps you from accidentally driving out of your lane by nudging the steering wheel to put you back in the lane,.

• Use your turn signal to over-ride and change lanes.

• You can over-ride it manually without the turn signal by pushing through the ‘nudge.’

• Can be a hassle when you are in the right lane and there is an exit.

This provides both adaptive cruise control (adaptive to the car in front) and adaptive lane guidance to make long-distance driving ‘semi-automatic’ - as long as you keep at least one hand on the wheel.

You can tell when this is active by the icon in the instrument panel. Green indicates active.

With the car in reverse, push the rear windshield wipe control outwards. It sprays water on the backup cam. Super cool!

This is kind of dorky but if you have a lot of pages on you console (I have only two), you can swipe from one page to the next just by waving your hand from one side to the other. Magic!

From outside:

Press and hold the Unlock button. All windows will open. To close all, press and hold the ‘lock’ pad on either of the front door handles.

From inside:

Press and hold the ‘window’ button on the driver’s side door. Then operate one or both of the switches to open both the left, or right, windows.

If your hands are full you can ‘wave’ your foot under the trailer hitch to signal it to open.

Make sure it is set to ‘Easy Open’ in Settings > Car

This keeps the car from ‘creeping forward’ when you have come to a stop and take your foot off the break.

To set, go to Settings Panel > Vehicle > Exterior > Brakes.

NOTE: Because you have to hit the accelerator firmly to move the car forward, this can be inconvenient when parking in tight places, and you might even hit the car in front of you. Best to disable it when parking.

TIP: You can add Auto Hold on/off as a shortcut to the Control Center which you access by swiping down from the top of any screen.

You can add any frequently used actions to the Control Center by pulling down from the top of any screen. From the Owners Manual:

1. Tap and hold until an additional window appears.

2. Tap the desired function in the additional window and hold until the function is highlighted.

3. Move the function to the desired position and release it.

You can pre-heat (and cool) the car while charging, without having to drain the batteries.

Using the heated seats and steering wheel can save significant range, which is particularly useful for road trips.

1. On a drive-through car wash with a moving track, put the car in neutral and then drag the screen down from the top to show the Auto Hold button. Deselect to prevent the wheels from locking in the car wash.

2. Depending on your car wash, you may want to disable the rear wiper or the ‘Easy Open’ feature of the tailgate.

Tap the “OK” button on your steering wheel to cycle through the different sets of performance stats “Since Start”, “Since Charge”, and “Long-Term”

A two finger tap on the temperature slider will cycle heated seat settings to avoid going into the menu. Works for both driver and passenger.

Ignore it.

Actually this does not bother me because it’s the same as in most other cars. Just beware that your estimated mileage is just that - and estimate. Major factors that affect this are:

1. Speed and driving style.

2. Amount of Heat or AC you use while driving.

3. Temperature outside.

This is small but it bugs me every time I get in the car: The seat belt is a bit flimsy and very difficult to connect to the fastener due to its location down between the seat and the console. My VW Alltrack is much easier to fasten.

I frequently get alerts suggesting that my parking lights are not working. I check and sometimes the are not; other times they are. Either way, a stop/start or system reboot usually clears it.

The driver side window, if partially open, needs to open all the way before it will close, even if I ‘pull’ the lever to close it. Others have reported similar issue. It’s a niggly.

Some dealers over-inflate the tires. Make sure they are set to 42 or check the psi on the inside of the driver’s side door.

Was one include? If not, you’ll need one.

VW no longer includes an L1 (120v) charge cable with the car, but they do sell an L2/L1 charger which is quite good. It will charge up to 30amps on a 240 volt outlet. The cost is reasonable compared to third party chargers and you can usually get a 10% discount from dealer at time of purchase. Some people have negotiated the charger for free.

Your dealer should help you do this, which includes a specific number. I believe this is the same number that appears below your VIN on the invoice that appears on the window.

Here’s the truth as of late 2022:

https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/409

Anything else, consult your tax accountant. But they will probably be working from the same documentation.

Here’s a helpful thread:

https://www.vwidtalk.com/threads/pre-delivery-item-considerations.3198/