Jonathan Crouch looks at Volkswagen's ID.3 GTX Performance EV hot hatch

Ten Second Review

Volkswagen's ID.3 GTX Performance doesn't send its EV power to both axles like some rivals but still manages to offer a satisfying take on the electric hot hatch genre. And of course that comes with all the usual practical benefits of owning and running an electric ID.3.

Background

Just when we'd started to doubt that 'GTX' was indeed a Volkswagen brand aimed at performance (ID.7 GTX and ID.Buzz GTX anyone?), along came this car, the ID.3 GTX Performance hot hatch. The 'EV version of a Golf GTI Clubsport' apparently. It's the brand's fastest-accelerating EV to date. We've already seen this top ID.3 variant's engineering in a rival VW Group model, the CUPRA Born VZ. In this case, it's delivered with packaging that's a little less in-your-face but there's no less intent here. "Volkswagen is transferring the almost 50 year tradition of its compact GT models into the world of electric mobility and driving pleasure is guaranteed" says the brand. Quite a claim.

Driving Experience

Volkswagen is offering just one 'Performance'-spec version of the ID.3 GTX for our market, which has 326PS and 565Nm of torque - 255Nm more than any other ID.3. The 62mph sprint occupies just 5.7s, very nearly as quick as the brand's combustion hot hatch alternative, the Golf GTI Clubsport. The top speed of this GTX is 124mph. And the 77kWh battery offers a 369 mile range between charges. Those stats look fine at first glance - until you start to consider the Dual Motor hot hatch EV rivals this rear-driven-only Volkswagen's up against. Namely the 435PS MG4 X-POWER and the top 428PS Dual Motor version of the Volvo EX30. As Volkswagen points out though, grip and power aren't everything and, like its identically-engineered VW Group CUPRA Born VZ close cousin, the ID.3 GTX has been R&D-tuned to out handle the two AWD rivals just mentioned. It gets adaptive damping and revised suspension that sits the car 10mm lower at the front and 15mm lower at the rear. The dampers are adjustable via three driving modes and can be tweaked via the centre screen along a sliding scale, as in a Golf GTI with DCC fitted. The GTX also gets a revised steering tune and a wider set of 20-inch wheels and tyres. There are no changes though, to track widths, suspension geometry or stability control settings - all the things that you might think ought to be different on a serious hot hatch.

Design and Build

You would have to know the ID.3 quite well to recognise the visual changes made to create this GTX version. There's a GTX-specific front bumper, complete with an independent black air intake in a diamond-style design and bespoke daytime running lights. High-gloss black body elements, 20-inch 'Skagen' black alloy wheels, re-designed side sills and a refreshed lower area at the rear with diffuser complete the model's exterior. The sporty theme continues on the inside, where premium ergoActive sports seats that combine fabric with leatherette sit alongside red decorative stitching, a GTX multi-function steering wheel and a GTX-specific cockpit surface. Otherwise, things are as with any other ID.3. So thanks to the slightly raised floor, you sit a little higher than you would in a Golf and all of the driving information displayed on a digital 'pod' panel. There's a standard-fit 10-inch centre-dash infotainment screen with intuitive ChatGPT-enabled voice recognition. And there are plenty of stowage cubbies, including a decently-sized central storage bin that resides between the front seats. Due to a 145mm wheelbase increase over a Golf, rear seat room is almost Passat-like, but you don't get a huge boot, though the 385-litre capacity will be sufficient for most.

Market and Model

From launch, Volkswagen wanted a not-insubstantial £46,225 for this car - about £1,800 more than the mechanically-identical CUPRA Born VZ and nearly £10,000 more than a Dual Motor 435PS MG4 X-POWER. Hmm. You're talking around £6,000 more than the next most expensive ID.3 model, the Pro S Match. In other markets, Volkswagen offers a non-'Performance' base version of this GTX model with 290PS, but we're unlikely to see that here. You do at least get lots of kit for that, including all the visual embellishments we mentioned in our 'Design' section, including smart 20-inch 'Skagen' black alloy wheels. Plus metallic paint and a Harman Kardon 480-watt '8+1' sound system. You can also tick off heated front seats, a 30-colour ambient lighting system, power adjustable lumbar support for the front ergoActive power-adjustable seats and DCC adaptive chassis control including a 'Driving Profile Selection' drive modes system. There's also Volkswagen's 'Park Asst plus' set-up with front and rear parking ensors. There's also a clever head-up display system, which projects augmented-reality navigation arrows, hazard alerts and pedestrian detection messages onto the inside of the windscreen in front of you as you drive. As with all ID.3s, infotainment's taken care of by a 10-inch centre-dash infotainment screen that features natural voice control with ChatGPT and enables you to ask the car virtually anything as long as you preface it by "Hello Volkswagen".

Cost of Ownership

We gave you the 77kWh battery's EV range figure in our 'Driving' section - 369 miles (rising to 441 miles for exclusive city driving). The battery can be public charged from 10 to 80% in 26 minutes at rapid DC stations of up to 185kW, while domestic AC charging can be completed at up to 11kW in eight and a half hours. Volkswagen reckons that a typical ID.3 user will save about £730 a year in operating expenses over what they'd pay to run a comparable combustion-engined model. It's not only that your energy costs will be lower: you should also make savings in insurance, road tax and the fact that no oil changes are required. Volkswagen says that its aim is to make sure that the battery pack lasts as long as the car and, sure enough, that battery pack is warrantied to have at least 70% of its usable capacity after eight years or 100,000 miles.

Summary

As we said when we reviewed this car's CUPRA Born VZ clone, it's hard to imagine why this model wasn't envisioned at the outset in Dual Motor AWD form, as its MG and Volvo rivals are. A rear-driven confection with a lot less power for much the same sort of money as those competitors doesn't immediately sound too appealing, but (like Alpine with their A290) somehow Volkswagen has made it work in this case. You'll feel a sense of driver engagement here that the owner of an MG4 X-POWER or Dual Motor Volvo EX30 wouldn't have. The problem is for Volkswagen that you'd feel even more of that in a Born VZ or an A290. But the ID.3 GTX Performance feels less 'mid-life crisis' than those rivals. You'll slot it into the office car park without the boss lifting an amused eyebrow. And you'll feel, as so often with a Volkswagen, that you've made perhaps not the best choice in the segment but definitely the cleverest one.