Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer Review & Prices

Volkswagen has a long history of making great, large estate cars - the VW ID7 Tourer is the company’s latest, and in many ways one of its best. It’s a large, family-sized electric car, but being an estate instead of an SUV means it’s both better to drive and look at than VW’s own ID4 or ID5 models.

Compared to those two cars, it’s like the annoying overachieving sibling - it’s handsomer, better at everything and should by all rights be the most popular. Yet the craze for SUVs means many buyers will look right past it, which is a shame.

There are a few all-electric estate car alternatives to the ID7 Tourer, but they’re either a fair bit cheaper or much, much more expensive. In the former camp there’s the MG5 EV and above that, the closely-related Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric and Peugeot E-308 SW. On the other side, the BMW i5 Touring and Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo offer much more of a luxury experience - but with far more of a luxury price tag.

Volkswagen ID7 Tourer: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 358 - 424 miles
Efficiency: 4.1 - 4.9 mi/kWh
Battery size: 77kWh/86kWh
Max charge speed: 175kW/200kW
Charge time AC: 11hrs 55m/12hrs 50m 0-100%
Charge time DC: 30m 10-80%
Charge port location: Right rear
Power outputs: 286hp/340hp

The ID7 Tourer looks great from the outside. It has a minimalist aesthetic, like Volkswagen’s other electric cars, and the design is dominated by a full-width lightbar at either end. The front one even incorporates a light-up Volkswagen logo, so that everyone knows what you’re driving even after dark.

On the inside, practicality is a very strong point. Even when the front seats are all the way back, there’s room in the rear for a six-footer to get really comfortable - and thanks to the Tourer’s greater headroom compared to the ID7 hatch, they’ll have even more space.

Meanwhile, the ID7 Tourer’s boot is larger than any other electric estate car on sale - it’s also bigger than VW’s own ID4 SUV.

Interior quality is a step up compared to the other cars in the ID line-up. Everything feels nicely-built, but there’s still an over-reliance on screens over physical buttons. Other than a hazard warning switch, everything on the ID7’s interior is controlled through either the central touchscreen or the touch-sensitive steering wheel controls.

It makes the ID7 quite difficult to recommend to anyone who isn’t a bit of a technophile - having the air-con controls through the screen is one thing, but using it to control the direction of the air vents is a step too far.

The ID7 Tourer’s powertrain is tied to the trim level, and there are two battery sizes and two electric motors to choose from. Even the more basic Pro Match model can do over 300 miles on a charge, but if you opt for the Pro S Match version you get an official range of 424 miles - that’s one of the longest-range electric cars on sale.

We’ll update this review with driving impressions once we’ve been behind the wheel. If you can’t wait until then, check out Carwow’s Volkswagen ID7 Tourer deals to get a great price. You can also browse used Volkswagen prices from our network of trusted dealers, and when the time comes to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

The ID7 Tourer starts from a little over £52,000, which neatly splits the difference between the priciest Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric (around £40,000) and the cheapest BMW i5 Touring (around £70,000). Prices rise to just over £56,000 for the long-range Pro S Match model, and just over £62,000 for the sportier GTX version.

Rather irritatingly, a heat pump - for more efficient heating and improved range in the winter - is optional equipment on all three, and it’s a pricey piece of kit, too. Otherwise, standard equipment is pretty good with all versions getting a 15-inch infotainment touchscreen, extended head-up display, keyless entry, three-zone climate control, a powered tailgate and Matrix LED headlights.

Very comfortable and great for long trips, but not as good as a BMW i5 Touring in the corners

In town

The ID7 Tourer isn’t quite as reassuring to drive in town as the taller ID4 - you don’t have such a commanding view of the road ahead, nor do you feel like you can intimidate smaller traffic. The ID7 Tourer is also a fairly big and very long car, so you won’t be nipping into the smallest gaps in traffic or parking in the tightest spaces.

However, those are criticisms you can lay at any family-sized car - and the ID7 does have some advantages in town. The electric powertrain is of course totally smooth, with instant response at low speeds making it easy to get going. Volkswagen’s augmented-reality head-up display is also really useful in complicated town junctions, as it overlays where you need to go onto the road ahead - helpful at multi-exit roundabouts, for example.

The car’s long wheelbase means it deals pretty effectively with speed bumps and the like, but sharper potholes and road imperfections can jolt through the cabin.

On the motorway

The Volkswagen ID7 Tourer is one of the best electric cars you can buy for motorway driving. The long range is of course a big draw here - charging an electric car on the motorway is very expensive and nobody wants to have to stop every hundred miles to top up the batteries - but it’s also powerful, comfortable and quiet.

The standard car gets a 286hp electric motor, which is ample even in this big car - though if fully loaded with passengers and luggage, you may wish you’d gone for the 340hp GTX model instead.

Refinement is top-notch. The ID7 is smooth and slippery, so wind noise is minimal, and even on the biggest wheels road noise is unobtrusive too. Combine that with excellent seats and Volkswagen’s useful Travel Assist adaptive cruise control, and you’ve got an extremely relaxing motorway cruiser.

On a twisty road

Get the ID7 Tourer onto a twisting back road and while it doesn’t feel insecure or dangerous, it certainly doesn’t encourage you to press on in the same way as a BMW i5 Touring.

Corner with a bit too much pace and the car’s safety systems soon step in to keep everything on the straight and narrow. That’s also true in the high-performance GTX model, which has four-wheel drive for even more grip - so while you can take corners quickly, you won’t necessarily feel the car being playful.

GTX models also get Volkswagen’s adaptive suspension, which you can adjust by 13 levels of firmness. At the softest, it’s much more pillowy and good for cruising, while at the firmest there’s virtually no body lean in the corners.

A Kia EV6 and BMW i5 Touring both feel more communicative on a good road, but the ID7 does feel more substantial and you feel more comfortable giving it some welly than you do in a Vauxhall Astra Electric or Peugeot e-308 SW.

A huge boot and great space for rear-seat passengers, but the rear middle seat isn’t the best

Up front, the VW ID7 Tourer feels extremely practical. The seats are very comfortable and adjust for drivers of all shapes and sizes, including a pull-out seat base to support those with longer legs.

Storage for smaller items is good too. The door bins are a reasonable size, easily accommodating a big bottle of water, and there’s a felt-lined cubby by the driver’s knee for smaller items such as keys. There’s also a deep cubby in the armrest, while a pair of roller shutters cover the multi-use storage area in the centre. This includes two big cupholders and a wireless phone charger.

Space in the back seats

There’s room in the back for a pair of six-footers to stretch out - it’s practically palatial, though not quite as roomy as a diesel-powered Skoda Superb Estate. The ID7 hatchback is similarly spacious, but the Tourer’s squarer roofline does actually improve headroom a bit too.

It is however best for two occupants. The centre rear seat is set higher and is quite narrow, so it’s not the best if you want to squeeze three adults across the back. A flat floor does at least mean there’s space for everyone’s feet.

Rear passengers get big door bins, map pockets on the front seatbacks with a smaller pocket for smartphones, and two cupholders in the fold-down central armrest.

All that room is great for fitting bulky child seats, and the ID7 Tourer has ISOFIX points on the outer rear seats to facilitate this. There’s also a point on the front passenger seat if you’d rather have your child up front.

Boot space

With 605 litres of space, the ID7 Tourer’s boot is simply cavernous. It beats out the 570-litre BMW i5 Touring and even the roomy Peugeot e-308 SW’s 548 litres. Put simply, if you want more boot space, you’ll need to opt for an SUV, like the Tesla Model Y. There’s certainly room for a whole family’s worth of suitcases, or a good trip to the flat-pack furniture outlet.

It’s a wide, flat space, and an electric tailgate comes as standard so access is nice and easy. The rear seats fold flat effortlessly, though it’s a shame that they only split 60:40 - both the BMW and the Peugeot have 40:20:40 folding rear seats, which allow long, thin items to be carried at the same time as two rear passengers. The ID7 Tourer does have a small ski hatch, but it’s not the same.

The best Volkswagen touchscreen yet, but the interior is totally over-reliant on it

Volkswagen has routed just about every one of the ID7 Tourer’s functions through the touchscreen. And when we say every one, we mean not just the usual things like sat-nav, or the secondary functions like the climate controls - you can’t even manually adjust the direction of the car’s air vents without venturing into an onscreen menu.

At least Volkswagen hasn’t gone full Tesla, and you do still get separate controls for the side mirrors as well as a drive selector on the steering column. However, the air vents will certainly be a step too far for technophobes.

The touchscreen otherwise is big, clear and responsive. It runs Volkswagen’s latest software which is a huge improvement over its earlier cars. The key addition is customisable shortcuts at the top and bottom, which allow you to put the functions that you want front and centre. This gives you a quick route to easily turn off the more annoying driver assistance functions, for example.

If you want to bypass Volkswagen’s own system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, with the wireless phone charger under the centre console complimenting this for a tidier, cable-free interior. There are USB-C ports just ahead of this if you’d prefer to plug in or if your phone doesn’t support wireless charging, though.

The ID7 also gets a small screen just ahead of the driver for essential information - this isn’t very customisable, but it doesn’t really need to be. The bigger deal is the massive augmented-reality head-up display, which can be tricky to get used to at first but works very well when you do.

Build quality inside the ID7 Tourer is good - it’s not as luxurious as the BMW i5 Touring, though, with some harder plastics and a few more suspect cheap areas. Considering the price, we’d hope for material quality to be at least on par with the cheaper Peugeot E-308 SW, though. And it’s a shame that regardless of which ID7 Tourer you go for, you’re limited to an all-black interior colour palette - a lighter option would make the interior feel more spacious.

The VW ID7 is a very efficient electric car, which combined with its big battery means some really impressive range figures. The entry-level car gets a 77kWh battery and 286hp electric motor, and claims a maximum range of 373 miles.

If you want more range, the Pro S Match version keeps the 286hp motor but ups the battery capacity to 86kWh, giving a theoretical maximum range of 424 miles. That makes it one of the longest-range electric cars on sale, though the ID7 hatchback does return an even more impressive 436 miles.

Opt for the sporty GTX model and you get the bigger battery, but range drops to a more disappointing 358 miles. During our time with this car over a variety of roads, we saw around 300 miles - suggesting that you should be able to get more than 350 miles from the Pro S Match version.

Charge speeds aren’t quite as good as the Kia EV6 but they’re still decent, with a maximum rate of 175kW for the smaller battery and 200kW for the larger one. This means that both should top up from 10-80% in about half an hour from a sufficiently powerful public charger. On a home charger, you’re looking at around 12 hours for a full charge from 0-100%, but daily top-ups should be fine, and with so much capacity in reserve you should very easily be able to do a full week’s mileage without going above 80% charge.

The ID7 Tourer pays the lowest rate of road tax, common to all electric cars, and fits into the lowest band for company car benefit-in-kind tax too.

The ID7 Tourer inherits a full five-star Euro NCAP safety rating from the ID7 hatchback, with a very impressive Adult Occupant Protection score of 95%. All models get a full glut of safety equipment, including the usual mandated autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign assist and speed limit alerts. The addition of a 360-degree camera, Travel Assist automatic cruise control, self-parking and schmancy Matrix LED headlights are all very nice to have, though, and come as standard on all versions of the ID7 Tourer.

Volkswagen came a disappointing 29th out of 32 brands in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. Earlier VW electric cars suffered a lot with software bugs and gremlins, and while you’d hope they would have been ironed out by now you should probably not expect the ID7 to be as trouble-free as a Kia EV6.

Warranty cover also isn’t as generous as the Kia, at three years or 60,000 miles of coverage. The battery does get separate cover for eight years or 100,000 miles, though that’s very much in line with every other manufacturer.