Volkswagen ID 7 Tourer review

Some buyers view estate cars as old fashioned and about as desirable as a fax machine, but VW is one of the brands that think there’s life in them yet – as shown by the VW ID 7 Tourer you see here.

The ID 7 Tourer is one of a handful of electric estates on sale, and because it’s based on the VW ID 7 executive car, it’s quite a big one.

There’s more boot space available than in a plug-in hybrid VW Passat and while there are pricier options around – such as the BMW i5 Touring and Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo – the ID 7 Tourer appears to have the strongest balance of space and practicality.

There’s a big battery model that can officially cover more than 400 miles on a full charge, while a sportier-looking GTX version promises to inject a bit of excitement into your journeys. So how does the VW ID 7 Tourer rank agains the best electric car rivals? Read on to find out...

The ID 7 Tourer is available in the same three versions as are offered for the VW ID 7 fastback (i.e. hatchback): Pro, Pro S and GTX. 

The entry-level Pro comes with a single 282bhp electric motor driving the rear wheels and can officially sprint from 0-62mph in 6.6 seconds. The Pro S version takes 6.7 seconds due to a bigger and heavier battery, but there’s still plenty of muscle available for it to get up to motorway speeds effortlessly.

The quickest ID 7 Tourer is the four-wheel-drive GTX model, which produces 335bhp and cuts the 0-62mph time to 5.5 seconds, making it quicker than the pricier BMW i5 eDrive40 Touring. It doesn’t pin you and your occupants back into your seats with significantly more force but certainly feels livelier than the Pro S version in everyday driving.

If you want the version with the longest electric range, the Pro S is the one for you: it officially manages 424 miles on a full charge. The GTX is powered by the same 86kWh battery, but the range drops to 359 miles due to the demands of the extra motor. The entry-level Pro, with its smaller 77kWh battery, sits comfortably in the middle, with a range of 373 miles. Any of these options will travel further on a full charge than any version of the i5 Touring.

There’s a little more road noise resonating inside the ID 7 Tourer than there is in the hatchback ID 7 but the levels are still very low. This is a very quiet and comfortable estate car to spend a long journey in. There’s virtually no motor whine or wind noise at motorway speeds.

So far, we’ve tried the ID 7 Tourer with Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) adaptive suspension, which comes as part of the Exterior Pack Plus on Pro and Pro S versions and does a great job of ironing out the road surface to deliver a calm ride. The GTX has DCC as standard but with a slightly firmer set-up. It retains most of the ride comfort but can jostle occupants around in their seats when going over larger bumps.

The brake-pedal response could be a bit sharper and meatier to boost confidence, but the ID 7 Tourer stops smoothly enough. The regenerative braking mode isn’t strong enough to bring the car to a complete halt, but it does so in a gentle and progressive manner. 

The ID 7 Tourer steers with accuracy and grips hard enough to feel composed. You’ll have to pay significantly more to get a more engaging drive from a Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo. Even so, the optional DCC suspension does a decent job of reducing body lean when cornering in its firmer settings. The slightly stiffer GTX cuts body lean even further, but does little else to help the Tourer feel agile. 

And while the GTX also comes equipped with a Progressive Steering system that quickens the response at low speeds, it does little to sharpen up the experience.

“Thankfully, the stiffened-up GTX version with optional 21in wheels hasn’t resulted in a brittle ride, but I did find rear-seat passengers were flung around in their seats more than those up front.” – Lawrence Cheung, New Cars Editor

The ID 7 Tourer’s interior is the same as the VW ID 7 hatchback's and that’s great news because it means it's really easy to get comfortable behind the wheel. The pedals and steering wheel line up well with the driving seat, which comes with electric adjustment and adjustable lumbar support as standard, as well as a massaging function to improve comfort on long trips.

With slim front window pillars, it’s easy to see out at junctions, while big side windows give you a great view over your shoulder. The rear pillars are a little chunky and the rear windscreen could be a little taller, but you still have a good view of what’s behind you.

Besides, all trim levels come with front and rear parking sensors, a 360-degree view camera and VW’s Park Assist Plus system, which allows the car to park itself in certain spaces.

You also get matrix LED lights that actively dim certain sections of the light pattern when using high beams to prevent you dazzling other drivers.

The digital driver's display is small and not configurable but is supplemented by a large head-up display showing plenty of information.

The ID 7 Tourer’s interior feels suitably upmarket, with perforated vegan leather on the seats, suede inserts on the doors and soft-touch plastic on the dashboard. It’s not quite as luxurious as the BMW i5 Touring but then that car costs significantly more.

The main shortcomings relate to the glossy black touch controls on the steering wheel: they're imprecise and fiddly to use.

Meanwhile, the touch-sensitive sliders for adjusting the interior temperature are easier to use than if they were icons on the main touchscreen (as they are on the i5 Touring), but you have to delve into a sub menu on the infotainment system to do anything more.

Annoyingly, that includes changing the direction of the air vents, which require you to drag icons across the screen and smearing fingerprints on it as you do so. You can set two custom positions to speed up the process in future, but it seems as though the system is trying to be too clever.

Otherwise, the touchscreen responds quickly and its huge dimensions – 15in diagonally across – allow you to see lots of information in one go. There are far fewer glitches than with previous Volkswagen systems.

Helpfully, you can create up to five bespoke shortcut icons at the top of the screen for your most commonly used functions, so you don’t have to spend too much time hopping between menus to get to them. There's a voice control assistant that has access to pretty much every function in the car and is said to use AI technology to help recognise a wider range of phrases. We found its accuracy to be inconsistent at best.

“The augmented reality head-up display will underline cars ahead of you and actively track their movements to keep you aware of them, but I felt it was a bit of a gimmick and a distraction.”  – Lawrence Cheung, New Cars Editor

The VW ID 7 Tourer is one of the largest electric estate cars on sale. It’s almost exactly the same length as a Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo and only slightly shorter than a BMW i5 Touring. 

Plus, unlike in the Taycan, its external size translates into a huge amount of interior space. There’s enough for front occupants to stretch and lounge out, with enough room spare for a six-footer to fit behind them comfortably.

Rear-seat occupants benefit from a touch more head room than in the hatchback VW ID 7 because the Tourer’s roof doesn’t slope down as sharply. A rear middle seat passenger won’t have to worry about leg room thanks to the flat floor, and the only compromise in comfort is having to sit on a slightly raised section of the seat base.

Storage space up front is plentiful, with large door bins, a deep cubby in the armrest, a generous space below the centre console, two cupholders and an area to wirelessly charge your phone.

In the rear, you’ll find door bins large enough for a bottle of water, two cupholders in the fold-down middle-seat armrest and a pair of small pockets on each of the back of the front seats to hold your phone or a small device. There’s also a larger map pocket lower down.

An extra function the ID 7 Tourer has over the hatchback version is its reclining rear backrest, although the angle doesn’t adjust enough to make much difference to versatility or comfort. The rear seats split and fold in a 60/40 configuration so they’re less versatile than the 40/20/40 format you get in an i5 Touring and even the smaller Peugeot e-308 SW.

At least you still get a ski hatch in the centre of the backrest so you can thread long items through from the boot and still take a rear passenger on either side.

With the rear seats in place, the ID 7 Tourer’s 605-litre boot capacity beats both the pricier i5 Touring (570 litres) and the Taycan Sport Turismo (446 litres). A height-adjustable floor allows you to eliminate the loading lip at the boot entrance and there’s a small storage well under the boot floor for a charging cable – although you need to pack it neatly in its bag for it to fit.

“The Tourer’s roof extends further back over the boot than in the hatchback so if you option the panoramic roof there's more glass, making the interior even better lit, which I really like.” – Lawrence Cheung, New Cars Editor

There currently isn’t a huge amount of choice when it comes to electric estate cars and the VW ID 7 Tourer doesn’t have any direct rivals. You’ll have to pay significantly more for the cheapest BMW i5 Touring, which feels more luxurious inside, but doesn’t have such a big boot.

The Tourer costs several hundred pounds more than a like-for-like VW ID 7 hatchback (or fastback, as VW calls it). That’s not a huge premium for added estate car practicality. The Tourer is expected to depreciate a little more slowly than the hatchback, although not by a significant amount. Make sure you check for the best prices using our new VW deals pages.

As with all electric cars the ID 7 Tourer attracts very low BIK tax at the moment, so it will be cheap to run as a company car.

The Tourer's trim levels are tied to the power and battery options, so it's easy to decide which one to go for. The Pro and Pro S come in Match trim, which comes with plenty of standard kit, including 19in alloy wheels, three-zone air-con, rain-sensing wipers, a head-up display, heated front seats with a massage function, rear privacy glass and a heated steering wheel.

There’s also a wide range of options available, including the Exterior Plus Pack with adaptive suspension (DCC), progressive steering and laminated rear side windows to go with the laminated front windows that come as standard.

The sportier GTX trim comes with different bumpers, larger 20in alloy wheels, a black roof and the option of a red exterior paint finish. Inside, there are ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, laminated rear windows and a 12 speaker Harman Kardon sound system.

With a maximum charging rate of 175kW, the ID 7 Tourer Pro should take around 28 minutes to charge from 10-80% at a suitably powerful public charger. Meanwhile, the bigger 86kWh battery in the Pro S and GTX is capable of charging at a slightly faster rate of 200kW, resulting in a 10-80% charge taking 26 minutes. That’s very similar to the 205kW charging rate from a i5 eDrive40 Touring, which takes around 30 minutes for the same top-up.

We’ll have to wait for the ID 7 Tourer to be included in the What Car? Reliability Survey but VW as a brand finished 22nd out of the 32 car makers listed in the 2023 survey. That's above Mercedes and Audi but below Tesla, BMW and Porsche. 

The three-year/60,000-mile standard warranty is not particularly impressive. BMW and Mercedes also offer three years, but with unlimited mileage.  

The Tourer hasn’t specifically been tested by safety experts Euro NCAP but the hatchback was awarded the full five stars overall in 2023. It scored the highest of any car that year in three of the four categories, proving very good at protecting adults and children in the front and rear. 

Plenty of safety equipment comes as standard, including lane-keeping assistance, rear traffic alert and automatic emergency braking (AEB) that can detect cars, pedestrians, cyclists and motorbikes.

“The ID 7 Tourer isn’t exactly cheap for private buyers, but this is one of the more affordable electric cars available with more than 400 miles of range, which I think is impressive.” – Lawrence Cheung, New Cars Editor

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