VW ID.3 Makes a German Summer Road Trip to Switzerland, Nails Range Record

All said and done, the automaker decided it was time to put the model’s battery through its paces via a Zwickau to Schaffhausen (Switzerland) trip that covered no less than 531 km (almost 330 miles).

That would have turned quite ordinary if not for the company's decision to forego the casual en-route recharge even though ID.3’s advertised WLTP range is more than 100 km (62 miles) less, at 420 km (261 miles).

So, officially, what we have here is the first ever range record set by the Volkswagen ID.3 electric vehicle, with the unit in question being a stock ID.3 1st Pro Performance with a 58-kWh battery. It was produced on location at the company’s new green manufacturing hub of Zwickau and the journey was undertaken exclusively on public roadways, even passing through cities such as Bayreuth and Ulm.

While an impressive feat in its own, we must consider the fact that helming the steering wheel was an expert Swiss “hypermiler,” Felix Egolf – fully proficient in the latest tricks that make series production cars perform better in terms of efficiency and consumption.

He did face a bulky hurdle during his journey – his techniques had to consider the added weight penalty incurred by the addition of a camera operator and his technical equipment, overall amounting to an excess of some 250 kilograms (551 pounds).

Because the ID.3 is fully electric, every system on board (navigation, DRLs, ventilation, radio. Etc.) also adds its own energy consumption to the average – though the latter was far lower than VW’s own rating of 15.4-14.5 kWh/100 km. The record unit finished the attempt with a mere 10.9 kWh/100 km on the trip computer.