Mel’s Electric Adventure in a Volkswagen ID.3

We’ve been lucky enough to take part in Mel’s Electric Adventure, a new podcast from Tortoise Media about the exciting world of EVs.

Each episode, one of our EV Specialists takes a drive with actress, comedian, TV presenter and national treasure Mel Giedroyc, and Tortoise Media’s World Affairs Editor, Giles Whittell.

In episode 2, “White Goods", you’ll hear Mel, Giles, and our EV Specialist, Gabie Amaro, carpooling in a VW ID.3.

Tune in to this episode to hear what Mel and Giles think of the ID.3, why Mel feels this car was made for her, and find out why the ID.3 is one of the safest EVs on the market.

• When Tesla entered onto the car scene, they set a challenge for all other manufacturers to compete with them with new EV makes and models. VW spent over $100bn on the ID.3, and it became their first EV offering to the car market.
• The heated seats, heated steering wheel, the lights, infotainment system and phone charging capabilities all run off a separate 12v battery in this car. The air con and fans use power from your main battery and that’s what impacts EV range.
• The entry level ID.3 has sat nav, reversing camera and adaptive cruise control as standard.
• Adaptive cruise control keeps the distance between you and the car in front at 2 seconds, and this can be changed based on the driver's wishes, keeping the car and passengers safe in difficult driving conditions like ice and rain. The cruise control will brake the car automatically, without the driver needing to touch the pedals if the space between cars gets too small.
• In warm weather, the ID.3 will give about 265 miles of range, but during podcast filming in the winter it gave 212 miles at full charge.
• It would take around 9.5 hours to charge the battery to full capacity overnight on a standard 7kW home charger, but rapid chargers will top the battery up to 80% within 35 minutes.
• In an EV, you should aim to keep the battery topped up between 20 - 80% to maintain battery life.
• The ID.3 costs from £32,000 to buy outright.

Click here to listen to this episode in your podcast app.

Photo credit: Paul Stuart for Tortoise