The engineers of Europe’s largest automobile association, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC), decided to test the battery of the electric Volkswagen ID.3 by driving 100,000 km as quickly as possible, frequently recharging the battery to 100% at fast charging stations in order to assess the accumulator wear.
The tested model was an ID.3 Pro S with a battery of 77 kWh of net energy, which benefits from a charging capacity of 11 kW in AC current and 170 kW in fast socket (DC), and for which Volkswagen, as well as for all other models in the ID. range family, guarantees that the battery still has at least 70% of its original net capacity after eight years of operation or 160,000 km of driving.
The endurance test, the first of its kind for an ID. family vehicle, was repeatedly verified by engineers from the Technical and Testing Center in Landsberg am Lech, and it ended up revealing that at the end of the 100,000 km, the battery still had a net capacity of 93%, meaning it only lost 7% of its capacity. According to the brand, this result was contributed by the software updates that the ID.3 underwent during the testing period, including an update of the Electric Vehicle Route Planner, an “intelligent” functionality that plans charging stops in order to reach the destination as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, besides the battery charge status, the system also takes into consideration the current traffic situation and its predictions. Charging stops are dynamically evaluated and based on the performance of the charging stations. “In addition to various bug fixes, the updates also brought an increase in charging power of up to 170 kW, and had a positive effect on consumption. In particular, the new software significantly improved energy consumption for short distances and winter temperatures from 0 to 5°C”.
Therefore, ADAC technicians have a clear recommendation for ID.3 owners: “software updates should always be installed”.
