Driving in icey conditions

[fiona.mc856]

Hi everyone
I am about to buy my first EV and really fancy the id3
I have never had a RWD car before either and am a nervous driver. How does the id3 hold up on icey /slippy roads ?
Any advice welcome

[roybosh]

Hello and welcome to the future
Most rear wheel drive cars have the engine in the front, this leaves the back end quite light. I've had a few rear wheel drive cars and they can be tail happy.
The ID.3 has the motor over the rear wheels, the added weight over the wheels make it less likely to cause issues. The car is also quite heavy and the batteries sit low in the car which helps.
If you were to select 'ECO' mode when it's icy or slippy, the power delivery is reduced making it less likely to spin the wheels. I think I read the power was reduced by 30%
If you are careful with the throttle, the car is really gentle and smooth to drive and you have anti-lock brakes and traction control to help you as well.
Hopefully you will have passed the icy or snowy roads by the time you pick up your car and will have many months to get used to how the car handles.
I've only had mine since early January and although the temperatures were sub zero for a few weeks I didn't ever feel like the car was unstable.

[fiona.mc856]

Thank you for replying
I am really nervous in icy conditions so if anyone else can re assure me that the id3 will be fine and not skid that would be great !
Do I need winter tyres ? if so, which ones have you found to give best results ?
Many thanks
Fiona

[cornbutter]

I've had the ID3 for a couple months shy of a year now. Been in icy conditions a few times, I've only had wheelspin once during those periods, and it was a particularly bad section and the loss of grip wasn't that bad at all. While there was wheelspin and I didn't ever lose control of the car and it was only brief.

My parents were very worried about me getting a RWD car when I told them I was getting it. My father had had a full 360 spin in a RWD car from the 90's only a year or two ago, so it was a fresh topic of discussion. The other cars I've had, (all from the late 00's and early 10's) had traction control, ABS, etc. but I would fairly regularly have issues with traction on wet conditions and icy conditions, but honestly, I've lost traction or had traction control notifications from the ID3 twice, maybe three times since I got it. As @roybosh said, the weight of the car, the weight distribution and the lower centre of gravity, the onboard electronics, they all contribute to the car that I find almost impossible to get wheelspin in. Any concerns I had about RWD in this car and winter conditions have gone right out the window at this point.

[OB1CCFC]

As said above by Roybosh I don’t think rear wheel drive is an issue in the ID3 because it has a central centre of gravity.
The significant weight of the car is an interesting one. Probably more planted on the flat but a little bit worrying downhill.
The car has a lot of low end torque so you have to be quite gentle with that as well.

[chrisfs]

RWD presents no problems when you are travelling in a straight line. But it’s physics, if you are turning out of a junction say on a damp road and you accelerate too fast you can definitely provoke a flick of the tail - albeit the car will do a great job of catching itself. It’s part of driving to be aware of situations like that, and the torque of these EVs will accentuate the issue.

I will say that for the same torque reasons I have been wary of FWD EVs, far too easy to find the front wheels scrabbling for grip. Same scenario: accelerating too fast for the conditions while the car is not pointing straight.

[roybosh]

Thank you for replying
I am really nervous in icy conditions so if anyone else can re assure me that the id3 will be fine and not skid that would be great !
Do I need winter tyres ? if so, which ones have you found to give best results ?
Many thanks
Fiona

Re winter tyres, thats a good call. There are quite a few posts on this forum about winter tyre choices.

[AlistairL]

I was nervous too (always been a front wheel driver) then remembered my motorcycle was rear wheel drive. In my experience it's a combination of tyres, sensitivity to the conditions, and planning that help.

I just checked my car settings and there is an option on mine to turn ESC off. With front wheel drive ICE cars I've had mixed experiences with that on or off.

[fiona.mc856]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences
Maybe I am over thinking it ? Probably a good shout to get winter tyres.
Really appreciate your input

[fiona.mc856]

I am a dinosaur and dont know the jargon

please could someone tell me what this means

turn ESC off. With front wheel drive ICE cars

what is ESC and what are ICE cars ?

[chrisfs]

ICE is all those old boring cars with Internal Combustion Engines, i.e. running on petrol or diesel.

ESC is Electronic Stability Control which helps stop your car sliding all over the place in slippy conditions by adjusting power to each wheel as necessary and/or applying braking. Very clever stuff, rarely needed in reality but great to have when it is needed. I think most cars have it now.

[AlistairL]

I am a dinosaur and dont know the jargon

please could someone tell me what this means

turn ESC off. With front wheel drive ICE cars

what is ESC and what are ICE cars ?

Sorry - trying to show off. ICE - Internal combustion or in my case, a petrol automatic vw golf.

Volkswagen cars through the years have had systems to prevent brake lock up (ABS - Antilock Brake System), and others to prevent wheel spin (TSC - Torque steer compensation) or skidding in general (ESC - Electronic Stability Control) and in some cases it is switched on by default but a driver can elect to switch it off.

Better drivers than I say that spinning the wheels can be helpful in some conditions - I don't claim to be that good - holding the golf manually in a high gear and tyres with a decent tread were the two things I've found make a real difference. The latter is impossible in an electric car so I'm wondering what it will be like too!

[SinglePointSafety]

Fiona, if you absolutely need to drive regularly in thick(ish) snow and/or icy conditions, then the best thing is to get a separate set of wheels and fit winter-specific tyres. Then when the weather gets warmer, change back to summer tyres (many tyre dealers will - for a price - store a set of wheels/tyres for you and do the swapover)

However, in the UK climate you can almost certainly fit some all-season tyres, such as the Michelin Cross-Climate, and leave these on all year round. Indeed, in some recent testing, these tyres out-performed many dedicated winter tyres in snow/ice. You will see a small decrease in range because all-season tyres have a higher rolling resistance than the EV-specific tyres you currently have

Hope that helps

[fiona.mc856]

Thank you so much for this advice
I really would like to get the id3 but am very concerned about it being RWD
The winter tyre suggestion hopefully will help minimise the risk

[roybosh]

Thank you so much for this advice
I really would like to get the id3 but am very concerned about it being RWD
The winter tyre suggestion hopefully will help minimise the risk

Have you had a test drive yet? That should go some way to alleviate your concerns.
All the safety aids mentioned in the earlier posts will help also, they are active by default so you'll not 'forget' to engage the ABS or ASC

[monkeyhanger]

Thank you so much for this advice
I really would like to get the id3 but am very concerned about it being RWD
The winter tyre suggestion hopefully will help minimise the risk

Have you had a test drive yet? That should go some way to alleviate your concerns.
All the safety aids mentioned in the earlier posts will help also, they are active by default so you'll not 'forget' to engage the ABS or ASC

The car is pretty heavy by ICEV standards, low centre of gravity, with all of that weight evenly spread. This is not like an old tail happy BMW 5 series with no weight over the back wheels. In this case the RWD saves you from FWD tramping/wheel hop. You'd have to be driving like a maniac on black ice to get the back end to kick out.

[SinglePointSafety]

Agree totally with what monkeyhanger and roybosh said...traction in snow and ice conditions will not be compromised at all by the car being RWD, the ultimate limitation would be tyre choice