Look, I’m well aware I’ve gone over this before. I know that. I showed something similar to this at the Old Site I used to write for. I get it. But, that doesn’t change the fact that it still doesn’t have a frunk, there’s still a sizable and usable volume of space up front, and Volkswagen still doesn’t seem to care. I think I get so hung up on the ID.4’s frunklessness and other minor but annoying issues like the window controls I wrote about yesterday because these things embody the paradox of the ID.4: a great car, hamstrung by small, fixable things. And, in this era where there are now a lot of great new EVs to pick from, nearly all of which are quick and comfortable and good-looking and all essentially full of the same basic set of driver’s aids and features, small things mean a lot. AÂ lot.
First, let’s start with what’s under the hood, or, rather what’s not under the hood and why the owners of an ID.4 can’t use the empty space left by all the things, like an engine, that are not under there. What drives me mad about the ID.4’s underhood area is that it’s actually quite large; it’s not a small hood on this thing. And, if you look under that hood, what’s inside there enjoys a good bit of roominess. Things aren’t all crammed together, which is great for servicing reasons, and a lot of space is just kind of filled with a big plastic armature:
There’s nothing technically wrong about what they’ve done here, but when you consider how many competitors in the EV space VW has that take the time to try and carve out useful storage volumes of space under the hood, VW’s cavalier indifference just feels, I don’t know, uncaring. Arrogant? Maybe. They’re not alone here; for whatever reason, most German EV makers treat frunks with contempt (I just called out BMW on this same issue not long ago) and usually explain it away by saying that hey, there’s plenty of room in the back of the car? So why are you kvetching?
I mean, that’s not wrong, as such: the ID.4 does have a good sized rear cargo area, complete with two sub-basement levels:
Of course, that’s not the point. At all. First, if you have charging cables or other stuff, you don’t want to have to unpack everything you may have in your hatch to get to them, under the floor levels. It’s nice to have an extra place to store all the crap that bangs around in people’s trunks. And, perhaps more importantly, most of the other cars potential buyers will be looking at do take the effort to provide under-hood storage. Even if it’s meager, the attempt is made, and I feel like that’s appreciated. Look at the Hyundai Ioniq 6, and the Tesla Model 3, for example:
Tesla has a good-sized frunk, Ioniq 6 has a pretty meager one, but the point is the underhood areas on both these cars look finished and refined and usable for hauling whatever the owner wants. If you’re shopping for a new car, and most other stuff is a toss-up, this is the kind of shit that can tip the scales.
Of course, in the case of the ID.4 this is especially maddening because it would take so little to make this work as a frunk. I laid down a tarp right in there, and look at all the crap I was able to shove in there:
I stuck in three partially-filled backpacks, a new clutch hydraulic cylinder for my F-150, in a box, the VW tire inflation kit that came with the car, and a Commodore Vic-20, complete with 5K of RAM. And it all fit, and the hood closed fine, and I was able to drive off with no issues. Look, here’s it happening, in moving pictures:
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What would it take for VW to make a molded-plastic tray that fits in there? It’s already weatherstripped with a nice fat rubber grommet around the opening. I think the volume available for stuff would be bigger than many of the frunks out there, even! Maybe not deeper, but definitely wider, and in overall volume, it’s pretty damn good.
The EV market is so competitive now, and I don’t understand how VW can build something that’s so good in so many ways and yet has just enough annoying or missing features that have to dissuade at least some people from buying these.
They’re handsome enough, too; a bit understated, maybe, but there’s very little anyone would object to, visually.
The interior is actually great on the ID.4, too. The Pro trim level I had some great material choices, like the brown leather and linen-like-fabric combo here:
It’s comfortable and looks good, and drives pretty well, too, with good acceleration and predictable handling, and it doesn’t feel like the 6,000+ pound porker it actually is, which is saying a lot. It’s a really easy car to live with, for the most part, and at about $43,000, it should be competitive with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or 6 or Kia EV6 or Tesla Model 3 or Mustang Mach E or any other modern SUV-ish EVs.
But then you get to those details, like no frunk or those window controls or VW’s instance on these touch-sensitive buttons for just about everything, and how that upper row with the volume control and temperature adjustments – arguably the set of most-used center stack controls – doesn’t illuminate at night, and good luck finding them by touch, because there’s hardly anything to touch there:
It’s little shit like this! Just details, but, holy crap, now more than ever details are important. Especially little details that you would deal with every single time you drove the car, like basic dash controls. The same stuff everyone complained about when the ID.4 came out, and absolutely none of these issues have been addressed, at all.
It all drives me clamshit because I think the MEB platform is quite good, and there’s so many positive things about the car, too. It’s frustrating. The whole thing is frustrating. A mid-cycle refresh that took care of, what, three annoying interior user interface issues and added a frunk tray of some kind and maybe some fun color choices I think could make the ID.4 a standout in this increasingly crowded field. But do I think VW will do that? No. I don’t.
I may as well end on a positive detail, why not: the wireless phone charging setup is great, it holds the phone in place and is really easy to slide the phone in and out of. So, there’s that.
Good job, I guess.
My god, the VIC-20 was one horrible computer! But Commodore made up for it by using the the same body (in another colour) for the 64 a few years later. Great machine!
The Skoda Enyaq is what the ID.4 should have been
https://dam.which.co.uk/WH12990-0253-00-front-615×461.jpg
The Enyaq fixes so many of the ID.4’s little bits of stupid. It has 4 perfectly normal window switches on the driver’s door. It has no touch sensitive buttons on the steering wheel. The temperature adjustments are on the screen and are always there, not buried in a sub-menu or using the sliders. The cabin quality is just as good as the ID.4.
And it’s cheaper, like-for-like.
It’s not like the Enyaq is perfect- it still doesn’t have a frunk, and the volume control is a slider still, and of course it’s still saddled with the less than speedy VAG infotainment system.
But it’s a really solid all-rounder. My parents have one, with the smaller ’60’ battery (58kWh usable), and they love it.
Never understood the point of frunk. I mean the charge port is in the back of the car, therefore it’s more handy to have cables also there. I also mostly transport large sports equipment, so if manufacturer can squeeze more room to back while sacrificing the frunk, I’m fine with that.
My suspicion why VW didn’t do small shallow space there is that it would have cost money and would have been tiny. In what ever excel kung-fu they did, most likely pointed that few hundred it would have cost to user to add it, would have hurt the bottom line.
Frunkvergnügen: The pleasure of storing things in the front of something your driving.
I will never use “that” term… never.
And in less range than the Changli can reach top speed….. you have created fire.
Didn’t Volkswagen invent* the frunk?
*steal from Tatra
I have a Honda Fit, probably one of the best packaged and most volume is cars for its size ever sold in the US. Do you know what part of that cargo space I use the most often? The little styrofoam cutouts under the rear cargo floor.
Why? Because I don’t want a bunch of stuff that lives in the car just rolling around in the open cargo space. For all the Fit’s capability, it’s made to haul big things like bikes and dressers, not small stuff like backpacks or charging cables.
Some of that stuff definitely needs to be inside the car, but a frunk would serve exactly the same purpose as that styrofoam and giving me even more space than a Fit would be a great selling point to convince me to get an EV; seriously, if the space is there, let me use it! So long as the German brands either don’t give us a frunk or outright prevent you from opening the hood (Mercedes) those are brands I’m gonna skip next time I need to buy a car
The lack of a frunk is the equvalent of older German cars having no cupholders because ‘German Engineering.’ People lamenting EVs without frunks are gonna really flip out once more models follow Mercedes and Fisker’s example and eschew owner operable hoods all-together.
I understand and agree with your frustrations about the frunk, particularly when it would be the perfect place for the charging cable and tire repair kit (as another reader mentioned). Basically for the stuff you wouldn’t want to have buried under all of your stuff on the side of the road or an overnight road trip stop.
BUT, their horrible UI with important controls that are not only gratuitously capacitive touch, but also NOT FREAKING ILLUMINATED should be the headline. That is just incompetent, and shakes my already low esteem of VW. Inexcusable garbage.
I’m sure the good folks over at Weathertech will start taking on these kinds of market opportunities, they are very good at making molded things that fit in funny shaped voids in cars, and charging a lot of money for them. At least they make their stuff in America.
VW said they are moving back to a few more physical buttons. That is good, if true.
VW also needs the Buzz to be a hit. More buttons for common stuff like HVAC and a physical volume knob would help.
You would think the Germans with their well known efficiency and hate of waste would agree. Your idea of a plastic molded tray with all the charging essentials maybe a can of fix a flat, the jack etc would be ideal. It sucks getting a flat on a trip and having to unpack the trunk to get to the spare. Maybe they just didnt think of it and are too embaressed to admit it. Keep pushing it Torch, and should you have the opportunity to test drive a VW or BMW check the brakes while having the local sheriffs bomb squad check out for BOOM MATERIALS.
If nothing else you would think they would sell an overpriced drop-in liner to turn a few bucks. People pay a lot of money for branded accessories that fit.
I have a Model 3 and rarely use the frunk. My wife used it a few times to see if a weeks worth of groceries would fit. They do for two people! Other than that, it’s basically forgotten space. I hate that the ID.4 doesn’t have a frunk but I understand why they didn’t bother.
The frunk has given me a challenge! We are road tripping to Colorado next month. My challenge is to fit one weeks worth of clothes for me any my 9-month old son in the frunk. I am allowed to do laundry mid-week. I should be able to pull it off as I fit one weeks worth of clothes in the frunk of a Honda NC700X in 2016. The trunk is for my wife’s stuff, kiddo support items (toys, pack’n’play, etc) and anything we buy along the way.
While a 9 month old child would probably fit, I recommend putting them in a car seat inside the cabin instead
Clicked on this just because I saw a Commodore Vic-20. I don’t know what I would do without mine! I mean, I still wouldn’t play games on it because I haven’t owned a TV I could hook it up to, but it is reassuring to know it is hopefully not rotting away in a box in the garage, waiting for me to buy a CRT with those sweet, sweet CRT class action $$$’s coming my way and play Gorf to my heart’s content….
Which begs the question, which games do you have for it Torch? Omega Race? The Sky is Falling? That one made for kids that you made faces with like 6 different hair options?
I also clicked on it because of the Commodore. I recently picked up a Commodore Model 1702 monitor off of eBay and hooked my C64 up to it so I could play California Games and H.E.R.O.!
California Games? C64? Pssssh…..quit bragging about all your modern tech!
You think your Commodore 64 is pretty neato?
What kind of chip you got in there, a Dorito?
Video Interface Chip, hence the name.
You’re using a 286? Don’t make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in, what, a day and a half?!
LOAD”*”,8,1
Me too! I haven’t seen one for decades, not since I was last in my mums loft and I found my old one.
Voodoo castle was my favourite game, never did finish it.
I was going to say I learned to program on a VIC 20, but I learned basic on a PDP 8 and Fortran on a PDP 11 and APL on some time sharing account my college had. But the first computer I owned was a VIC 20 and I learned assembly on that. What fun. I wrote a video titling preen that actually put the computer into interlace mode and could do nice smooth scrolling. Pretty impressive in 1982. Especially for an art major.
He has all the games on cartridge AND cassette tape!
Any chance that there might be anything under the hood that could overheat and catch fire if the space was used as a frunk? Or at least malfunction?
Just using the principle of charity here…
For some reason I am envisioning the scene from The Right Stuff where the Astronauts demand a window in the hatch and the German designers are against it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAyJiNobfY8
I suppose in this scenario Torch is the astronaut asking for a frunk and VW says NEIN! Unfortunately Torch can’t play the Buck Rogers card, so the VIC20 will need to ride inside the vehicle. As a classic piece of computing history it deserves better than a frunk, anyway.
I wonder if the European Ford “Explorer” (all Explorers have black A-, B-, and D- pillars with body color C-pillars, it’s the one constant!) will have similar weird issues. Looking at the promo pictures, they’re using VW’s window controls (why??), but the center stack looks like Sync.
Road trip is always a NO-GO if you can’t bring the Commodore along. Life without a SID chip and the MSSIAH cart is a life not worth living my friend. Also, Camp MOS 6581 all the way Jason! Please don’t tell me you’re an 8580’er, otherwise, we’ll have to end this friendship.
The volume and temp controls don’t light up and are touch sensitive? That is enough reason for me to not buy a car. That might be forgivable on something like a weird sportscar, but not on a family appliance.
Yep and it’s is infuriating. My friend took delivery of his ID4 last month and when we were driving back from a game the other night I went to adjust the passenger’s climate control temperature and could not do it without pulling out my phone to light up the area just so I could see where the touch area was. What makes it worse is there’s actually a shallow spot above the smooth touch area where you would expect your finger to fall in the dark and for the control to exist; but it does nothing because it’s just a depression in the plastic.
Oww, we want the frunk, give up the frunk
Oww, we need the frunk, we gotta have the frunk…
La la la la la
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo oww
Insert slow hand clap gif here.
Thanks! That song pops into my head when I see the word “frunk”. 🙂
George Clinton and the Parliament funkadelick?
Yep – P-Funk All Stars 🙂
Never stop beating this drum, Jason. We want the frunk!
Possible reasoning behind not having a frunk: having to have the emergency escape latch, NVH and people freaking out about something clunking or rattling under the hood (VW people should be used to that, but still a possible reason), crash testing, cost cutting (the real reason), part of the dieselgate settlement said that if they made a frunk they would have to once again test how many dead monkeys they could fit in there.
Frunk Monkey ?
Frunkeys.
Regarding the emergency escape latch, I believe that’s only required if there is a certain volume of space in the storage compartment. Someone else got around that by dividing the Frunk into separate compartments too small for a child to fit in.
ze Germans don’t care