Stupid question no 1001...

[Utumno]

It struck me that the cable supplied seems much more substantial than it needs to be. You'd think VW would have supplied the lightest possible cable - after all we're only able to draw 11kw from it (or actually 7kw in the case of my City, I think).

The cables supplied with UK cars are 3-phase 32A compatible. That's not the case with cables in every country.

Thanks, that figures. So it's actually capable of 22kw total draw I suppose, not that the ID3 can pull that, but I guess a 3-phase 16A cable would limit you to 3.6kw on a single phase connection, and a single phase 32A cable (if that is a thing) would limit you to 7.6kw on any connection. If I've understood correctly!

Yup that's pretty much it. You'll see most domestic EV wall chargers quoting 7.4kW as a charging speed, because that's what a 32A single phase connection converts to. 3phase is basically 3xsingle phase as you've said.