MOTORING REVIEW: 2025 GTX is VW’s sportiest ID.3 yet

Volkswagen’s ID.3 GTX hatchback arrived here in the second half of last year as a new addition to the brand's electric model family. It's a real head-turner with an improved interior and very impressive performance. The car is built on Volkswagen Group’s MEB electric vehicle platform, which is also used for other ID. models and for some electric cars from other brands like Cupra, which the Volkswagen Group also owns. 

In size, my review car — the top-of-the-range Performance Plus trim — is a bit shorter, wider, and taller than a VW Golf, with more interior space provided by its longer wheelbase and short overhangs, and with the batteries below the floor. 

The car looked the business in a King’s Red metallic exterior with black roof, tailgate and pillars. There's a new black air intake with a special diamond design, and the tailgate is a standout feature. GTX badging appears on front doors, but the logo fades against the black background across the rear. New 20-inch alloy wheels are fitted as standard. 

READ MORE: 

MOTORING REVIEW: Honda’s ZR-V is family friendly hybrid SUV

Visibility is good with the forward slope of the windscreen and good A-pillar windows, while the big windscreen wipers cleared the entire windscreen in heavy rainfall. 

The cabin is well designed with high-quality materials and many GTX-specific features. Front sports seats with integrated headrests feature GTX velour seat trim and power adjustments with lumbar support. Sporty red stitching on the dash, doors and steering wheel added to the car's sporty ambience. The special GTX leather-wrapped multi-functional steering wheel can be heated, and the twist-type transmission selector located here includes the parking brake.

The dash has a large free-standing 12.9-inch central touchscreen with colourful graphics and menus for things like vent controls, which I didn’t find very intuitive. It has built-in ChatGPT artificial intelligence, voice control, and is compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Sliders below the screen are for temperature and volume controls. I prefer actual buttons and knobs for key features. 

The small driver information digital cluster provides all relevant data, and since your current speed is also shown on the head-up display, it really doesn’t need to be any bigger. A small touch panel between the two screens is for adjusting exterior lighting and demisting, but it’s not easy to reach. There’s a good rear-view camera, a Park Assist function that detects a suitable parking space and automatically manoeuvres your car during the parking procedure, and front and rear parking sensors, as well as good blind-spot monitors. 

Details include a wireless mobile phone charger, two C-Type USB ports front and back, three ISOFIX child anchor seats, a really good Harman Kardon sound system, and VW's We Connect Plus connectivity. 

On one trip, three male adults managed to squeeze into the back seats, with the guy in the middle having the narrower seat but appreciating the flat floor. Headroom was fine. 

Boot capacity is 385 litres with all seats up, expanding to 1,267 litres with the back seats folded down. The high boot floor is not adjustable; there is nowhere below to store the charging cables. 

The GTX Performance Plus has a single rear-mounted electric motor on the rear axle that delivers up to 326hp and a massive 560Nm of torque, powered by a 79kWh battery pack. Combined, they allow for a 0-100km/h time of 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 200km/h, making this the fastest ID.3 model yet. The 52kWh battery of the standard ID.3 GTX provides a range of around 388 km and power consumption of 15.2 kWh/100km, while the 79kWh battery provides up to 604km, but in real-world driving is somewhat less, and power consumption of around 15.7kWh/100km.   

You can charge the battery from 10-80 per cent in around 30 minutes with a DC fast charger; home charging of 11kW AC from 0-100 per cent can be done overnight. 

The Performance Plus version comes with adaptive dampers that you can adjust through the drive modes of Eco, Comfort, Sport, and Individual, allowing you to choose the responses you want in various driving conditions, like on urban or country roads.  

This is a snappy, compact sports car which Volkswagen claims is the electric counterpart to their sporty compact icon, the Golf GTI Clubsport. I found the steering on the heavy side, which I prefer, but the ride was a bit firm even over good roads; the cabin was quiet with little road noise filtering through. 

The ID.3 GTX Performance Plus competes in the electric hot-hatch space where its main competitors include the Cupra Born VZ and Alpine A290, among others. 

Priced from €39,025 after VRT Rebate and SEAI Grant; my car €41,258. Annual road tax is €120.