Never mind what the reviewers say, what did you think about the infotainment system on your test drive?
I find it pretty good to be fair, it boots up a lot quicker than it did when the ID.3 first came out (I had an ID.3 1st edition with the same interface since Nov 2020) and is improving with every update. There are shortcuts that you pick up around navigating the interface, like turning on the heated seats with a double finger tap to the screen rather than menu diving.
The voice activation works really well in my opinion, the limitations of it I’ve found exist in every car I’ve tried with it. Once you learn the commands it’s possible to do quite a bit.
The wireless CarPlay is genuinely seamless and very reliable.
The twin climate controls and volume slider being unlit on the lip below the screen where the IR sensors are is a regular gripe, but volume can be adjusted from the steering wheel controls anyway, and the ‘Clima’ button just below is illuminated and pressing that gives you a myriad of options to adjust from the main screen. I tend to set and forget it, but you can also use the voice control to raise or lower the temperature or say your feet or hands are cold etc and it will adjust.
The charge timers for charging during off peak periods are flaky, but departure times and the remote App all work well. Fixed in v3.0 now apparently.
It depends when the ID.4 you’ve found was built, but it might be on v3.0 of the software already, but if not will be running factory v2.3, which might be important to you as it has some changes to the battery heating algorithm that apparently helps improve short journey cold weather consumption.
It might also have the extra sensors on the wheel arch area to enable Some extra features that are coming with the soon to be released. v3.0 OTA update, but even if it hasn’t it will get all the other changes.
A lot is written about the ID software, but much of it is based on the MEB launch, where it was certainly less than polished. After using the ID interface for nearly 2 years now, I prefer it to our Tesla M3 interface, I find much of the text far too small to read easily without my glasses on, which is a pain.
