[Stevehg]

Hi everyone, just ordered an ID4, but asking here as they’re essentially the same underneath, and you all have actual driving experience.

Is the heat pump a worthwhile addition based on your experience? In my limited understanding, here in the UK it’s going to offer a range benefit through about 6 months of the year. From searching, it wasn’t easy to quantify this benefitas it seemed to range between 7%-20%.I assume the variance depends on how low the outside temps are and journey type.

Lastly, how complicated are they, for this range benefit are you adding another item that’s potentially complicated/might break fail, or is it replacing an existing heating/cooling system, just better at it?

Thanks in advance, Steve

 

[Kansalis]

Uh oh... Here we go again! Joking aside, check out the efficiency threads is this forum for very long discussions on this subject.

In my personal opinion a heat pump is a waste of money in this country, you will never recoup the cost. If you want to eek out an extra 10 miles or so from your maximum range in the 2 or 3 weeks of sub-zero temperatures we have in the UK each year, then that cost/benefit decision is up to you.

 

[Oli]

Probably not worth it as a cost option for most people. Nice if it's included as standard.

 

[jeffUK]

I can only repeat what I've said before on why I've ordered an ID3 Tour with a Heat Pump.

My thinking was never about a heat pump paying for itself, it was about comfort and convenience on longer trips (in return distance) during winter.

If I’m on a longer drive and it’s cold, I can have a warm car and not lose as much range. That might mean I don’t need to stop to charge, I make it to another (better / faster) charger or not have to stop for as long. The alternative without a heat pump would be to have a colder car or lose more range.

It is expensive, but if I’m spending that much on a car then I’d rather spend (in overall cost terms) a little bit more than regret not having it. Especially as it (seemingly) can’t be fitted afterwards.

I don’t have an ICE to fall back on. I want to avoid public charging as much as I can on longer journeys. So I decided to go for the Tour. Once I’d done that it seemed worth going for the heat pump to help maximise that extra range in winter.

On it's efficiency - there have been mixed reports, but this test from Battery Life is an interesting comparison for the UK, because it took place in low single figure tempratures, ie just the sort you're going to have in the UK for a fair amount of the year. The only caveats are that they aren't going that quickly and they've both got the cabin temperature set pretty high. Even allowing for that, a 7.5% difference isn't too bad.

He did another test - not simultaneous, but on the same night - when it was much colder, but with the cabin temperature set lower. Results weren't much better, but there were some slight differences in the spec and tyres, so that could have affected the result.

 

[Mr_ess_jay]

7.5% of 300 miles is 22.5 extra miles per full charge. If you are going from 100% to around 10%,then that's only 20 miles.

Not worth the cost for the convience.

 

[Woodulike]

It won't pay for it's self but it will make the car more efficient when the heater is running. In my man maths it might make the car 10% more efficient over the year. As the cost of electricity to run my cars is around £300 a year I didn't go for a heat pump.

Driving slower or buying a smaller car makes much more difference. If you're on a long drive and range is tight just slow down by 10 mph, that will save more than the heat pump will.

 

[TomH]

It won't pay for it's self but it will make the car more efficient when the heater is running. In my man maths it might make the car 10% more efficient over the year. As the cost of electricity to run my cars is around £300 a year I didn't go for a heat pump.

Driving slower or buying a smaller car makes much more difference. If you're on a long drive and range is tight just slow down by 10 mph, that will save more than the heat pump will.

I entirely agree that a heat pump is not a cost effective extra.
We have one on our Life for the very unsatisfactory reason that the only car available in the right colour had one fitted. More Woman Maths than Man Maths in our case!

 

[Trapdoor]

It perhaps will not pay for it's self in your use case however for almost everyone it also will not cost the headline figure (of adding it) over the life of the car either. I think it is worth it for some people and so VW have kept it as an option not standard so we can decide. One other factor is that it can make a noise at times when stationary, you hear it outside the car not in the car.

 

[Dion Rust]

I wonder why VW didn't make a heat pump standard like some of the other manufacturers. Simplified production would save money after all.

 

[Jon Chalk]

It won't pay for it's self but it will make the car more efficient when the heater is running. In my man maths it might make the car 10% more efficient over the year. As the cost of electricity to run my cars is around £300 a year I didn't go for a heat pump.

Driving slower or buying a smaller car makes much more difference. If you're on a long drive and range is tight just slow down by 10 mph, that will save more than the heat pump will.

It might make the car 10% more efficient over about a half of the year if you live North of the border, but in Southern England, it's going to be more like a third, or a quarter of the year near the coast or the South-West, so your man maths is even more secure

 

[Stevehg]

Thanks for the responses everyone, appreciate it, especially on a subject that seems to have been done to death already - so thanks for being patient with me asking nooby questions 👍

Decision made, I’ll leave it off the order, cheers

 

[M C Williams]

I am getting a heat pump on the car I have ordered.

I would sooner order it with the car now and regret it in the future if I didn't.

 

[E-Gizmo]

It might make the car 10% more efficient over about a half of the year if you live North of the border, but in Southern England, it's going to be more like a third, or a quarter of the year near the coast or the South-West, so your man maths is even more secure

It has less to do with where you live, more about how warm you like the car.

So we figured it was worth the extra cost (which wasn't 'really' extra as the DtD discount was more that the price of the heat pump).

Very few options on a car are 'needed' but they are certainly nice features to have for many of us, other people are perfectly happy with the spec of a Life with no options added (we wouldn't have been).

So horses for courses.

Also IF you are buying the car (rather than PCP etc) then a car with the heat pump will certainly be more desirable when you decide to sell.

 

[jeffUK]

I wonder why VW didn't make a heat pump standard like some of the other manufacturers. Simplified production would save money after all.

I believe in some areas where it would be a more obvious benefit - like the Nordic countries - it was included as standard.

I’m guessing it was left as an option in other places to keep the cost down.

 

[Jon Chalk]

It has less to do with where you live, more about how warm you like the car.

Very true....

 

[simon-g]

I wouldn’t, and didn’t on our eGolf either.

My thinking is that everyday journeys don’t get close to the range of the car, even in deepest winter, without the heat pump. The long trips would need a rapid charge stop anyway, so having it a few miles further down the road makes no odds - plus the long trips tend not to be in winter. And I struggle to think of a trip we’ve done where the heat pump would have saved us an extra charge stop.

Your thinking may differ if you’re regularly doing journeys close to the range of the car and it’s cold enough for much of the year to make a difference.

If you’re buying at the cheap end of the current ID.3 range (a 58kwh Life, which is what I’m considering) the heat pump is 4-5% extra cost. Not remotely worth it for me.

 

[Woodulike]

Also IF you are buying the car (rather than PCP etc) then a car with the heat pump will certainly be more desirable when you decide to sell.

I doubt I'll get a higher offer for my egolf because it has the heat pump.
That was an £830 option and looking back it didn't make much difference, even though my wife regularly used the car for 80-115 miles 2-3 times a week. On the days where it would be getting close on range she was plugging in anyway so she had 25-30 miles left on the GOM.

 

[E-Gizmo]

I doubt I'll get a higher offer for my egolf because it has the heat pump.

More desirable rather than worth more, if you had 2 identical cars at the same price then anyone with any sense would pick the car with the heat pump over the one without, therefore making the car easier to sell.

This is irrelevant if you will never own the car though.

 

[Woodulike]

More desirable rather than worth more, if you had 2 identical cars at the same price then anyone with any sense would pick the car with the heat pump over the one without, therefore making the car easier to sell.

This is irrelevant if you will never own the car though.

That helps the dealership selling the car but not so much on a trade in.
I own my cars as well.

 

[freddym]

Uh oh... Here we go again! Joking aside, check out the efficiency threads is this forum for very long discussions on this subject.

In my personal opinion a heat pump is a waste of money in this country, you will never recoup the cost. If you want to eek out an extra 10 miles or so from your maximum range in the 2 or 3 weeks of sub-zero temperatures we have in the UK each year, then that cost/benefit decision is up to you.

A heat pump is just the same Aircon system as standard with an additional heat exchanger that can leak and a lot of additional switching valves that can leak or fail.......