Is the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro the New Range King Among Mainstream EVs?

• The 2021 ID.4 Pro outperformed its EPA-estimated range of 260 miles, covering 288 miles on Edmunds' real-world EV range loop
• That total puts the ID.4 Pro in 8th place overall on our EV range leaderboard and 2nd among non-luxury models to the Hyundai Kona Electric
• The ID.4 Pro only beat the regular ID.4 by 1 mile in our testing despite the Pro's 10-mile advantage per the EPA
• Edmunds' EV range leaderboard is embeddable and dynamic, meaning it will update in real time whenever we add a new electric vehicle

The 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro has an EPA-estimated range of 260 miles on a single charge. As far as non-luxury EVs go, that's the longest EPA range on the market as of this writing, beating out the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Hyundai Kona Electric by 1 and 2 miles, respectively.

That said, it's still just an estimate. We wanted to see how the ID.4 Pro would perform on our standardized EV driving loop, especially after the ID.4 First Edition — EPA-rated for 250 miles — threw down a 287-mile performance in previous testing. With its supposedly lighter weight and smaller wheels and tires, would the ID.4 Pro go even farther? Here's what we found.

Testing the ID.4 Pro in the real world

Edmunds tests every new electric vehicle on the same real-world driving loop to see just how far it can travel from a full charge down to zero miles remaining. If you look at our EV Range Leaderboard, you'll see that most EVs have matched or exceeded their EPA range estimates in our testing. The ID.4 First Edition that we tested in March of 2021 outperformed its 250-mile range estimate by nearly 15%. With almost identical weather conditions (65 degrees F for the Pro versus 63 degrees F for the First Edition), we expected a similar result with the Pro.

At the end of a long day of driving, we had traveled a total of 288 miles in our ID.4 Pro, which is 10.8% more than its EPA estimate of 260 miles. While that's a good result, it's only a mile more than the ID.4 First Edition traveled and about 10 fewer miles than we were anticipating. It also falls short of the Hyundai Kona Electric's impressive run of 315 miles.

So what do we think happened here?

The ID.4 Pro's range advantage, according to Volkswagen, is largely based on its weight advantage — it weighs more than 100 pounds less than the other trims. Also, it rides on smaller wheels and tires. Less weight to move and less rolling resistance from the tires generally mean improved efficiency. We weigh every vehicle we test on our own scales, so let's take a look at the weight figures we recorded alongside VW's official numbers.

ID.4 Pro
VW: 4,559 pounds
Edmunds: 4,695 pounds

ID.4 First Edition
VW: 4,665 pounds
Edmunds: 4,688 pounds

That's right — for some reason, our Pro model, which was supposed to be lighter, actually weighed 7 pounds more on our scales. This, despite having smaller 19-inch wheels and narrower front tires than the First Edition, which rode on 20-inch wheels. The fact that the Pro weighed more but had slightly smaller wheels and tires helps explain the similar range figures. We haven't been able to determine where our Pro's extra weight came from.

It's worth noting that Volkswagen advises against charging to 100% on a daily basis for the sake of battery longevity. Full charges should be reserved for when you anticipate a longer drive ahead. But for testing purposes, Edmunds will always charge to 100% to determine the car's maximum potential.

So how much did those 288 miles cost?

Although total range is at the top of most people's minds when it comes to EVs, energy consumption is an important factor as well. This determines how much your miles will cost you. The unit of measurement for consumption, the kilowatt-hour, can be thought of as the EV equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. Just like gas, the price of electricity varies depending where you live. For example, you'll pay about 8.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in Oklahoma as of this writing, whereas in Hawaii it'll run you about 33 cents.

So, what can ID.4 Pro owners expect to pay at "the pump"? After charging the battery back to full, we calculated an Edmunds consumption rate of 29.3 kWh/100 miles, which is 13.9% more efficient than the EPA estimate of 34 kWh/100 mi. That means that if we lived in Hawaii our 288-mile jaunt in the ID.4 would have cost us $27.84, whereas if we lived in Oklahoma, that same charge would cost just $7.51.

How does that compare within the EV world? Let's look at the Hyundai Kona Electric, which is comparably priced though smaller than the ID.4. In our test of a 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric, we measured a consumption rate of 22.3 kWh/100 mi. So that same 288 miles in the Kona would have cost $5.72 in Oklahoma and $21.19 in Hawaii. You'd definitely save a few bucks with the Hyundai, but we suspect that many shoppers will find the VW's extra space and utility to be well worth it.

How about a gasoline-powered rival? Running a 2021 Honda CR-V for 288 miles on regular fuel would have set us back roughly $38 in Hawaii and $26 in Oklahoma at current prices, assuming we got the CR-V's EPA-estimated 30 mpg combined. If you averaged 10K miles a year, those savings could amount to a few hundred dollars in the bank.

For more information on how we test EV range and how each vehicle performed, we invite you to visit our Real World vs. EPA testing page, which includes both our EV range leaderboard and a table with detailed test results. Our EV range leaderboard is embeddable and will automatically update every time we add a new vehicle.

Edmunds says

While the ID.4 Pro currently leads the non-luxury field according to official EPA range estimates, the Hyundai Kona remains the top performer on the Edmunds real-world range loop. It's a good illustration of how real-world testing helps paint a more complete picture for EV shoppers. For our latest comprehensive ratings of all electric vehicles, head over to Edmunds' EV rankings page.