The VW ID.4 just finished a solid sales year in 2023, but there are choppy waters ahead. Volkswagen moved 37,789 ID.4s last year, up 84 percent from 2022 and enough to comprise 11.5 percent of VW’s overall American sales. As production is ramping up at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant where American ID.4s are assembled, however, EV demand seems to be slowing across the board, and the pool of competitors keeps growing. There are no waiting lists for the ID.4, as there were a mere 12 months ago, and you might even find the ID.4 is your cheapest lease option in a VW showroom.

Fortunately, the 2024 model is getting several major and useful upgrades that should boost buyer interest.

Powertrain Upgrades

First and foremost, the little SUV is getting more power. Thanks to a new rear motor dubbed APP550 that employs a stator with more, and larger, square-section wires; a bigger heat sink; and an uprated oil- and water-cooling system, output for rear-wheel-drive models with the 77.0-kWh battery skyrockets from 201 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque to 282 horses and 402 pound-feet.

With the new motor, the rear-drive ID.4’s power-to-weight ratio is now almost a match for the outgoing all-wheel-drive model. VW claims that the sprint to 60 mph shrinks from 7.7 to 5.9 seconds, but given the huge increase in torque, we think it might even do a little better than that.

The all-wheel-drive model also gets this new rear motor, coupled with the existing 107-hp and 119-lb-ft front motor. Because of limitations in the power control electronics, this version doesn’t get as big a jump in output as the rear-drive model, but combined power still increases from 295 to 335 horsepower, while torque jumps from 339 pound-feet to somewhere close to 500 (VW hasn’t released this combined figure). This will drop the zero-to-60 time from 5.7 to 4.9 seconds, according to VW. We measured 5.4 seconds for the all-wheel-drive 2022 ID.4 that we tested, so that new estimate seems entirely doable.

While net battery capacity is unchanged at 77.0 kilowatt-hours, the battery does benefit from a slight improvement in the battery chemistry. And this new motor is not only more powerful, but also slightly more efficient. As a result, EPA estimated range increases from 275 to 291 miles for the rear-driver, while the AWD model has a more modest bump from 255 to 263 miles.

The entry-level rear-drive model with the 58.0-kWh battery gets none of these powertrain changes—with horsepower and torque staying at 201 ponies and 229 pound-feet, respectively—and its range actually shrinks slightly from 209 to 206 miles. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that VW—and most EV manufacturers—recommend charging to only 80 percent to preserve battery life, unless you’re going on a long trip. So give all of these range predictions a 20 percent haircut for most real-world driving situations.

Much-Needed Infotainment Improvements

More impressive than these improvements are the upgrades to the infotainment system. As someone with a 2023 ID.4 in our family’s vehicle fleet, I would say that our car’s human-machine interface seems to have been designed to maximize the number of control inputs needed to perform the simplest tasks while coupled to a computer that seems even dumber than a typical politician.

The ’24 model gets essentially the same system that VW previewed last year in our first drive of the upcoming ID.7. With only a slightly larger—12.9 versus 12.0-inch—LCD screen for 77.0-kWh models, the new version has a strip of HVAC controls that are permanently displayed at the bottom edge of the image. As a result, you can now directly activate the seat heaters and air conditioning rather than having to go into menus to do so. There are still touch sliders for the fan speed and left and right temperatures, but at least they are now illuminated and usable at night.

The menus themselves have been simplified and are easily customizable. At the top left of the main screen are five shortcuts that you can select, easing access to your most-used functions. Furthermore, the computer operating all of this is considerably more powerful and has some AI abilities, making the response to voice commands more accurate and far faster.

The steering wheel controls have also been revised for the better. There’s now a button on the right spoke to activate the steering-wheel heater. And the control that switches from adaptive cruise control to normal cruise control is now a series of button pushes rather than a push, slide, and second push. And for better visibility, VW has moved the rotary shifter from the right edge of the still-tiny instrument cluster to a fixed stalk on the right side of the steering column.

Driving the New ID.4

We had a chance to test these upgrades on a short drive in California in a top-of-the-line AWD Pro S model. As you’d expect, a 14 percent jump in power is immediately noticeable. While the acceleration tails off at higher speed, in the cut and thrust of urban driving, the ID.4’s acceleration, combined with its immediate throttle response, makes you feel invincible.

The ride and handling remain very good in city and suburban driving. Combined with the quiet and buttery smooth powertrain, the ID.4 feels very refined. However, if you use the copious thrust to push the ID.4 on a mountain road, you start to notice both the nearly 5000-pound weight of the machine, as well as a shortage of damping, which makes the car feel somewhat wobbly. A sports car it’s not.

But the new infotainment system is a joyous breakthrough. While it still has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, you no longer feel compelled to use these systems in self-defense against the car’s irritating native applications. In fact, the ID.4’s navigation system has some features that the phone apps can’t match, such as allowing you to program it to look for charging stations at a specified level of charge, for those who have greater or lesser range anxiety. And you can program up to 10 charging waypoints on your route, and the system will tell you how many charging stations are open, though only at Electrify America charge points.

Pricing ranges from $41,160 for the essentially unchanged 58.0-kWh base model to $58,480 for the top-of-the-line AWD Pro S Plus. That’s up about 5 percent from the start of the 2023 model year, and all versions of the ID.4 qualify for the $7500 Federal tax credit—the only non-domestic EV that does so.

You also still get an Electrify America charging package, though not nearly as generous as the three years of free charging that came with previous models. Now you get a free 500 kilowatt-hours of charging (about 10 charges from 20 to 80 percent), followed by a discount of roughly 25 percent.

This package of genuine upgrades should keep the ID.4 competitive for another few years—if the EV buyers are there. Now I need to figure out how to transplant the new screen and brains into our car.

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