Volkswagen Fights Off Electric Car Anxieties: Range, Trips, Winter, Heat & More

As Volkswagen targets electrification of the mainstream segments on a mass scale, the company has to promote electric cars to the groups not necessarily familiarized with EVs.

There are tons of myths, concerns, doubts and fears about whether an electric car will reliably fulfil its role as a "normal car."

And here is a new small "campaign," entitled: City, country, motorway: let’s see where the ID.3 can take us!, which consists of several images about the use of ID.3 in various situations.

It's quite clever and interesting from an educational point of view, so let's jump into it.

Rush hour in the city, only 10% remaining!

Is 10% battery state-of-charge a reason to panic? Well, according to Volkswagen, it's still enough to cover quite a distance:

Reach your destination, fast!

Is highway driving too much for EVs? Well, at 130 km/h (81 mph) for 30 minutes (over a distance of 65 km/40 miles), Volkswagen ID.3 reportedly requires only 14 kWh of energy. That's only a fraction of the largest 77 kWh battery.

Heading on holiday with a full load: is that a good idea?

According to the manufacturer, the fully loaded ID.3 has lower range by a fifth (up to 450 km/280 miles, instead of 549 km/341 miles WLTP), but it's still possible to make long-distance trips using DC fast chargers along the way:

Driving to the mountains: the air is getting thinner!

Mountains are not a big problem for EVs. The energy consumption is higher when driving uphill, but you will regenerate on the way back down.

Moving fast at the height of summer

Air-conditioning uses less than 1 kW of power. That's just 1 kWh over one hour.

It’s dark and icy outside, but cosy inside: are we getting there?

How about heating? Well, the rear windscreen heater for sure will not get you stranded - it uses just 0.0033 kWh in 10 minutes!

But in general, there are solutions to limit range loss in winter (which obviously might be significant due to electric heating), like preconditioning while charging or buying a car with an optional heat pump.

See also

In 2020, Volkswagen Brand Sold More Than 212,000 Plug-In Electric Cars