VW ID7 Pro Match is a roomy, comfy and efficient EV with a kit list as long as your arm – but the price lets it down

NOW this is confusing. Usually at the end of a car’s life, it gets a special edition with metallic paint and they make it cheaper.

Because they can’t sell it.

Guess what?

Volkswagen has done it at the START of this car’s life.

Last week the ID7 Pro Launch Edition cost £55,870 on the VW configurator.

This week the ID7 Pro Match is £51,550 – and it’s just as good for less money.

Actually, one might argue the Pro Match is better because it has privacy glass and metallic paint thrown in, whereas the Launch Edition doesn’t.

So why has VW cut the price by £4,320?

Good question.

Presumably because there are rivals out there from Tesla, Polestar, Hyundai, Kia and BYD, all starting with a four.

VW got its sums wrong at the beginning.

You can even buy a BMW i4 for £50,755. OK, it’s a bit more cramped and doesn’t go as far but it’s a BMW.

Pricing aside, I liked ID7. It’s a nice place to be. It’s roomy, comfy, efficient – it’s actually one-size-up compared to the rival saloons I’ve referred to – and there’s an estate version coming this summer. That will be VW’s USP.

This 77kWh battery version has a maximum WLTP range of 383 miles. More like 300 miles in the real world.

But the 86kWh Pro S battery turns ID7 into a proper long-range cruiser, nudging 435 miles. You’ll need to stop before the car does. It can recharge to 80 per cent in 28 minutes.

Performance isn’t really an issue with electric cars – they all have instant torque – but there’s a more powerful dual-motor GTX in the pipeline. Which will also cost more.

As you’d expect from a motor costing £50k-plus, ID7 Pro Match has a kit list as long as your arm.

Heated massaging seats up front, 15in touchscreen, augmented reality head-up display (blue arrows flash up on the windscreen to guide you left or right, like a computer game), all of these things, please – and they are all standard.

The “play and pause” accelerator and brake pedals, a signature of all ID cars, add a bit of fun to a lush and well executed cabin.

This test car was also fitted with a “smart glass” panoramic roof which can be switched from transparent to opaque almost instantly.

So, that’s the ID7 Pro Match. The most accomplished electric Volkswagen I’ve driven.

If you signed on the dotted line for a Pro Launch Edition last week, don’t ring me. Ring VW.

• VOLKSWAGEN has reintroduced the Match trim, with more extras as standard, in ten models – Polo, T-Cross, Taigo, T-Roc, Tiguan, Touran, ID3, ID4, ID5 and ID7. Match first appeared on Golf 2 in the mid-Eighties.