Volkswagen ID.5 SUV - Reliability & safety

The Volkswagen ID.3 launch was arguably ruined by software bugs and, while most of these should’ve been sorted out by now, your ID.5 may not have fully escaped occasional electrical glitches. Our test car didn’t suffer any problems as such, but general conversation can awaken the voice control system when you aren’t intending to. It’s too easy to press buttons accidentally, although that’s more an issue with the interface than the software itself.

Volkswagen ID.5 reliability

Given that none of VW’s ID. models have appeared in our Driver Power owner satisfaction survey yet, it’s hard to judge exactly how reliable the ID.5 will be. But it does use a lot of shared parts, and its electric powertrain has very few moving parts and consequently, there aren’t many mechanical aspects to go wrong.

In our list of the top 32 brands, Volkswagen came in a very disappointing 27th place behind its Volkswagen Group sister brands, Skoda (20th) and SEAT (23rd), though it was ahead of Audi in 30th place. A slightly worse-than-average percentage of respondents (26%) reported a fault or a breakdown in the first year of ownership.

Safety

A five-star rating from independent safety testers Euro NCAP means the ID.5 will protect its occupants in a crash. Its 93% and 89% scores for adult and child protection are very impressive, and the 76% rating for pedestrian safety is still good.

The car’s autonomous emergency braking system can recognise other vehicles as well as vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Other driver assistance features include a head-up display, road sign recognition, traffic jam assist, and the combination of adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assist and lane-change assist, which allows the ID.5 to semi-autonomously drive in certain situations.