I should have said in the video that this is specifically a short journey test, based on the actual journeys that we do 95% of the time. I formulated these tests based on our own real world experiences, which at their worst were even worse than the findings in these tests.

You will of course get a better range if you do longer journeys as the car has had a chance to warm up, but this is rarely the case for us personally and for a majority of road users as the average journey length is 8.4 miles in the UK.

You will of course get better range (but not better power consumption) if you pre-heat the car when plugged in at home, but as these cars get more mainstream, people without a driveway or garage (us included) are not able to pre-heat their cars as they need to be plugged in.

Many people in the comments (who I suspect are high-mileage early-adopters) disagree with the tests we've performed here, but these tests are a genuine reflection of our use and experiences with the Volkswagen ID.3. Other people may have different experiences, but this video is correct and accurate for our short journeys.

It's been -2C to -6C for the past week and I've made 7 journeys from a cold start in my ID3 Family edition with an average of just over 3 miles per journey. Each time I've had the heaters running on full blast as well as heated seats and steering wheel. My average range over these 7 journeys has been 2.5 miles per kwh which equates to a range of 145 miles. So something is seriously wrong with your ID3 if you are only getting 58 miles. Suggest you take it to the dealership to get it looked at.

Anticipating this issue, I paid a few hundred pounds extra and ordered an id.3 with a heat pump. And while the range does reduce slightly in the winter, it only falls to around 200-220 miles. I could get up to a maximum of 270 miles on a warm summer’s day. So my question is, why do VW not just fit the heat pump to all id.3s rather than offering it as an extra?

I get 180 miles doing 50miles a day motorway trips at 0c or lower. Managed to get 3.7miles/kWh the past couple of days at 5-10degrees which equals around 215mile range. Seems alright to me

Thank you for an interesting post.  I can see that the specific circumstances covered by your test can create very low potential ranges for the ID.3 but it does also look like longer journeys and ore-heating whilst connected to a wall box will make a significant difference to the range, even in Winter.  The video helped me to think some of those things through so was helpful.  Thanks

Just shows how important preheating preconditioning is, whilst plugged in preferably, if you can remember to do it. Or better still, set a timed one for a regular journey.

Would be interesting if you popped around the corner to Hyundai Torbay and did this same test in a Kona or Ioniq, Incidentally they do have a page with the energy consumption broken down so you can see exactly what is consuming the power.

so around 100miles if you only do 3 mile journeys. If you do two of those per day thats a couple of weeks between charges - not bad. If you keep it between 20-80% you still have at least a week of 3 miles trips which is also fine. If you want to drive more often you can just choose to charge to 100% now and then which is fine (people fuss about this too much). I do think EV to ICE comparisons often ignore lack of efficiency on ICEs. They’ll say ‘oh WLTP is 250miles but realistically 200 and a bit less in winter’. But then fail to mention an ICE car with stated 40mpg will be exactly the same. More like 30-35mpg in real world and perhaps 20-25mpg in cold weather/short trips. People just know this is the case so it shoudln’t be that surprising to be the same on EVs. (VW should fix the forced battery heater though - ID3 should be an efficient city commuter)

Winter range is a joke for short journeys, indeed. I still like my ID3 despite this. I would not want the battery heater to be permanently switched off, though. Hope they can optimize power consumption with software updates.

Interesting #ID3 comparisons. Certainly agree heated Steering Wheel & Seat is the way to go, and/or keep “cabin heating” on low setting. Heated front & rear screens. Never had less than 2.6m/kWh on similar short journey 4.6 mile round trip to buy a paper in -2°C outside temp #Hondae advance

The one point that I would say that seems to have been missed is the battery heater won’t be on all the time. Yes it will consume energy to heat up the pack but then it will switch on and off to keep the battery at its optimum temperature. Therefore the figures you show in here are if the heaters are on all the time which is not how they would work in the real world. With possibly the exception of the cabin heater.

Awesome test👍

What 50 miles are you joking! I have an ID.3 and constantly get a 160miles @ 80% charge even during last week’s below zero temps. That includes 22deg heat temperature with one bar on heated seated and steering wheel.

Thank you for the feedback on your cars efficiency in your real world test , for me that same test would be 11 miles each way so in my testing the first 3 miles the cars efficiency is low but then after 3 miles the car is warm so the heating is no longer needed on the battery or the cars cabernet heating so on compd days it goes from ( 1.8mpkw at the start ie first 3miles then at the end of the trip 11 miles its at 3.2mpkw at 5c  . Just wanted to make it clear if people do more than 3 miles the cars efficiency will go up a lot more  and all ev cars will be in the same boat as they will work in the same way , ie full heating on until they reach the desired temperature then it will kick off say after 3 miles then the efficiency will go bakc up .

Lithium ion batteries are less efficient when they are cold anyway on top of the heating and other systems

It uses less battery to use the heated seat rather than the heater

Just did a 3 mile run from cold with heating on in my egolf (cold battery), water on the road and 7 degrees Celsius, it returned 4.0mi/kWh, same driving speeds too 🤔

Actually this video raises a very important issue. Id.3 does heat the cabin, and battery allegedly, like crazy in winter. This makes sense for longer journeys and probably improves fast charging speed(?). But for shorter trips??? Id.3 is just is not economical for shorter trips in winter even with a heat pump. Will this improve battery longevity??? Whats the point otherwise? I dont get it. Our Mazda MX-30 with a lot smaller battery pack seems considerably more thrifty in winter. But on the other hand is hopeless to fast charge at lower temperatures. The point is the tech works so differently in the two cars. Could anyone shed any light on this issue? Its a mystery.

On longer city trips (30 minutes or more), my 58 kWh ID3 has a range of about 180 miles...3.10 miles per kWh
Before the ID3, I had a petrol car with 15 mpg consumption on short cold trips and it was not even close to the level of comfort of the ID3.
It took soooooo long to warm up...probably barely starting to warm up at the end of a 3 mi. journey and no way to program pre-heating or start heating remotely.
Money-wise, it was 3 times more expensive to run than the ID3 on electricity.

Thanks for this video. I'm thinking about buying a used EV in 2026 with a budget of under £10k. There are a few good options out there, but I do a couple of 200+ mile journeys in winter and something that will be comfortable with only needing a 30 minute stop. A CUPRA Born or ID.3 with heat pump sounds ideal once prices fall a bit more.