The 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 is a proverbial crystal ball into the company’s electrification plans. The ID.4 is the smaller cousin to the international market-only ID.6 and is supposed to give buyers in the U.S. an offering that attempts to appeal to the broader mass market. However, does the 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S hit the mark in this regard, or is it overshadowed by rivals?
Volkswagen ID.4 Blends Into Traffic, Makes Us Wish For Sportier Lines
Volkswagen made some minor updates to the ID.4 for 2024 to try and help it stay fresh in the marketplace. While we’ll get into those updates later in the review, we might as well start by talking about the exterior styling, which is an interesting interpretation of what VW thinks is in store for its EV future. The front fascia gets a large grille panel with a small light bar that helps unify the front with the LED headlights. The side profile is shaped like a typical CUV, and it leads out to the back, which looks like it was melted and molded with the aid of a blow torch with a unified lightbar that even adds an illuminated VW logo in the center.
The Pro S is the most athletic one of the bunch, but we wished that VW designers could have done a better job of making the ID.4 stand out in the traffic. The blob-like profile doesn’t do enough to make the EV stand out in traffic, and other EVs, like the Tesla Model Y, have more expressive lines. We suspect that most buyers will not focus on that detail too much, but if you’re someone that’s looking to make a statement with your green vehicle purchase, the ID.4’s discreet way of promoting itself to others might not let you achieve that goal easily.
ID.4 Interior Has Playful Look, Marred By Bewildering Controls
Slip inside the ID.4, and you’ll find a contemporary cabin with VW designers adding premium touches like ambient lighting, generous cargo space, and an impressive amount of high-quality materials. Cloth-covered seats are standard on lower trims, but if you move into a Pro S like our tester, you get faux leather upholstery as well as 12-way adjustment for both front seats. The seats themselves are very comfortable, but they will not set the world on fire with their bolstering, which we found quite lacking, especially when we took our tester down some winding backroads outside of town.
Volkswagen took a bold gamble with the ID.4 and made nearly all the controls haptic feedback ones, and as a result, there’s not a lot of analog buttons and switches in the ID.4. The climate control system, steering wheel buttons, sunroof, and other features all embrace this control scheme, and as a result, it’s a mixed bag with some features requiring focused inputs from your finger to get accurate inputs especially when adjusting the temperature or operating the volume controls for the radio. The dash-mounted shifter takes some getting used to as well and requires a brief period of practice to master fully. The sloping roof line and the small rear window eat into rearward visibility, and as a result, drivers will have to make good use of the mirrors to achieve safe lane changes. The roofline also eats into the rear headroom, which is a shame since there’s a good amount of rear leg and knee room.
The 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 comes standard with a 12.0-inch infotainment system. Still, buyers can swap it out for a slightly bigger 12.9-inch unit, which is also standard on the Pro S. Our tester had the bigger screen. Still, while the software is the latest iteration of VW’s infotainment suite, it’s far from being segment-leading, with our experience being frequented by long load times, questionable menu icon placement, and even one instance of the system freezing, which forced us to turn off and restart our tester to get it going again.
Navigation is bundled in standard, and the system even comes with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay capability. As a whole, the system is fussier than older systems seen in models like the Tiguan and the Jetta, and we wish that the ID.4’s navigation software had a way of inputting addresses in a simpler menu that eliminates some of the frustration we experienced.
ID.4 Performance Is On Par With Rivals; We Wish It Had More Refinement
Performance for the 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 continues to come from a pair of electric drivetrains, with base models getting a single rear-mounted electric motor and a 58.0-kWh battery pack that helps the motor make 201 horsepower. Our Pro S equipped tester arrived with the beefier dual-motor setup that makes 330 horsepower and is mated to a larger 77.0-kWh battery pack. The power present in our tester is on par with rivals from Tesla and Hyundai with VW claiming that the Pro S can tow up to 2700 lbs. However, behind the numbers is a rather moribund driving experience; acceleration is smooth but not earth-shattering, with our tester making the sprint to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. The steering is also too sloppy for high-speed driving but while the Pro S will not be a corner carver, it makes up for it by being a good city commuter, with the cabin being whisper quiet at freeway speeds and the suspension doing a good job soaking up a wide range of bumps and imperfections.
Volkswagen claims that the 2024 ID.4 will have better range, but the EPA still hasn’t released official range figures as of yet. For now, we have to go by the 2023 numbers with Pro S models, like our tester getting 255 miles of total range with 99 MPGe in combined driving. Front-wheel drive versions of the Pro get a slightly better range of 275 miles before it needs to plug in for a charge. The battery pack can be charged from a 110-volt or 240-volt outlet, but buyers that don’t have a charging station at home pre-installed will have to have a DC fast charging station mapped out since the ID.4 does not come with a 110-volt wall outlet cable from the factory. The lack of a cable is not exclusive to the ID.4 either, with more brands expecting owners to have a charging station in place, with the Kia EV6 being a notable example of this in action.
Value Quotient
Pricing for the ID.4 lineup is reflective of its place in the segment, with a “Standard” model starting at $40,290. The pricing gradually climbs up as you make your way through the ID.4 trim family, and the Pro models cross into the $50,000 barrier when assorted fees are factored in. Our all-wheel-drive equipped Pro S example was one rung below the range-topping Plus model, with our tester having a base price of $52,795. Our example came with a light sprinkling of options and a $1,295 destination fee, which helped the price go up to an as-tested final total of $54,485.
This pricing does not include any green tax credits, but it also highlights the ID.4’s disadvantages when compared with rivals. The base ID.4’s mileage lags behind the Hyundai Kona and Kia Niro EVs in mileage. Meanwhile, the ID.4 also has a slower DC charging time than the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the slightly bigger Hyundai Ioniq 5. However, suppose you’re willing to look past some of these initial disadvantages. In that case, the ID.4’s relaxed personality and some of its built-in technology will help provide a smooth transition to an all-electric lifestyle as well as make good use of the three-year wait times that we have seen for other VW EV models, including the ID.Buzz minivan.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.