I've reserved the 1st edition and began researching the available specs. I am suspicious of the 250 mile range. The EPA rates efficiency at 35kWh per 100 miles. At this efficiency, 250 miles requires 82kWh of battery. VW only allows normal use of 77 kWh. This means for the EPA test they had to consume the full 82 kWh. Will this be available to all consumers or did VW hack their battery controls for the EPA test?
I now have a better understanding of the EPA estimation method. Real-world numbers for highway driving would be under 160 miles. The EPA estimates a highway efficiency of 379 Wh/mile at 60 mph. Only 77 kWh of battery is available. This gets a full charge range of about 200 miles at 60 mph. Nobody will drive to 0% battery and will seldom charge to 100%. Using 80% of the battery gives a little over 160 miles. Going faster the 60 will significantly decrease the range.
EPA estimates are probably good for comparing car to car, but not for figuring what you're actually going to get in real life.
You really need to estimate range on capacity from 30-80 or 20-80. No manufacture really recommends going beyond that regularly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
People have already done range tests with the ID.3 in varying battery sizes and at varying speeds. https://insideevs.com/volkswagen/id-3/news/category/range-efficiency/ Overall results for the ID.4 will probably be similar to the large battery ID.3.
