ID.4 Volkswagen’s sprightly green machine

Brand loyalty is a funny thing: You’re fanatical in your allegiance until, one day, you need something your fave doesn’t have and you go elsewhere…and you develop a new loyalty just as fierce as the original.

That was the case with me and Volkswagen. My Jetta was utterly reliable and I swore I would live with it or VW until my last breath.

Then came the day, the front-wheel-drive Jetta got stuck trying to negotiate a steep turn on a bad gravel road in the Lapalala Wilderness.

I realised then I needed something with all-wheel-drive capabilities – but not a double cab bakkie or a Toyota Land Cruiser.

In those days, VW didn’t offer any sort of SUV – but Subaru did and, 20 years later, we have two in our family…and the Jetta is long, and sadly, gone.

I always wondered if VW coming late to the electrical vehicle (EV) game might have done a similar thing in Europe with the early adopters, causing an explosion of Teslas on the road (that many drivers are now embarrassed to be associated, in any way, with Elon Musk, is a story for another day).

When VW turned its hand to SUVs, it brought a level of sophistication to the class, with the Touareg, Tiguan and later the T-Cross and T-Roc.

And, clearly, it did the same thing with its venture into the EV sector – the ID.4.

The car has been in VW’s test fleet in South Africa for a few years now – so the company can evaluate the viability of cheaper EVs in our market.

So far, most EV buyers have been well-heeled people wanting to make a green statement. Well-heeled because they cost a lot more than cars with internal combustion engines.

The ID.4 certainly delivers on the expectation that VW is a top-class engineering company.

With a 77kWh battery and, unusually, a rear-drive configuration powered by a 150kW electric motor, it promises spritely performance and decent range (the nightmare for all EV owners).

Watch: An advert for the VW ID.4

It will hit 100km/h in just over eight seconds and has a range of just over 500km, which is one of the best out there at the moment.

On test, the car felt conventional in many ways – apart from the immediate surge of torque you get from electric motors – and was comfortable and well made.

There was plenty of space inside, it was comprehensively equipped with safety and comfort features and was relaxing to drive.

This is no out-and-out sports car and has a lot of extra weight, thanks to the battery, but it is still good dynamically.

Over the five days it was with us, I mainly commuted, for which the ID.4 was perfect. It returned good electricity consumption figures—so much so that I didn’t need to recharge it before handing it back.

It’s a very good effort…but the future for cars like this is murky.

They haven’t been selling in Europe, and VW itself has had to close factories and retrench workers because the Chinese offerings in the market (often government-subsidised) are cheaper and better.

But Donald Trump may have given the Europeans like VW a lifeline with his “drill, baby, drill!” philosophy, because it has made conventional engines almost acceptable again in many parts of the world which want to roll back the EV tsunami.

Trump has given more power to climate sceptics… which is a pity, because climate change is real. And if there were more cars like the ID.4 on our roads, it would make a significant difference to our future.