[null]

... for me... It's not the easily scratchable glossy plastics or touch senstive controls or lack of some lighted controls or lack of dedicated rear window buttons or lack of one pedal driving or lack of heat pump in US version or not so fast charging but... it's the damn charging port location...

Why on earth would they pick rear right location? IMO it's one of the worst locations for EV which meant to spend most of the time charging at home. I would have been fine with front like in Leaf or front left side like in I had in Volt/Bolt or even rear left would have been ok like in Tesla. Of course VW isn't the only one who is guilty of that, Hyundai/Kia as well as Toyota also doing the same thing, there are some China made EVs using right front location.

There are a few options how to solve it for manufacturers. Either 1) standardize location of the port 2) add two locations on both sides at least

 

[MR. Ed of course]

... for me... It's not the easily scratchable glossy plastics or touch senstive controls or lack of some lighted controls or lack of dedicated rear window buttons or lack of one pedal driving or lack of heat pump in US version or not so fast charging but... it's the damn charging port location...

Why on earth would they pick rear right location? IMO it's one of the worst locations for EV which meant to spend most of the time charging at home. I would have been fine with front like in Leaf or front left side like in I had in Volt/Bolt or even rear left would have been ok like in Tesla. Of course VW isn't the only one who is guilty of that, Hyundai/Kia as well as Toyota also doing the same thing, there are some China made EVs using right front location.

There are a few options how to solve it for manufacturers. Either 1) standardize location of the port 2) add two locations on both sides at least

I too would prefer the charging port to be on the driver's side or up front. However, in the case of the VW, most German ICE cars have the filler access on the right side of the car. That's because the mufflers on most of those cars are on the left side, and for safety, they purposely placed the filler in a location where spilled fuel would not likely come in contact with a hot exhaust system. The location of the EVSE port may be a carry-over of that logic. Anyway, that's my "seat of the pants" guess. 🤥 YMMV.

 

[WhoaItsAFactorial]

Why on earth would they pick rear right location?

This actually works nicely for me. I park in my left garage (which is the further from the electrical panel) and always back in. So this makes it so my EVSE is right next to the charge port. There is no perfect spot, and no matter where they put it someone is going to complain that it doesn't work for their set up.

 

[null]

This actually works nicely for me. I park in my left garage (which is the further from the electrical panel) and always back in. So this makes it so my EVSE is right next to the charge port. There is no perfect spot, and no matter where they put it someone is going to complain that it doesn't work for their set up.

Most people don't back in their cars, like this id.4 is for my wife and she doesn't like backing in her car. I do back in my cars generally, but this isn't as common. I am planning to park in the left garage as well, but without backing in this isn't going to work well.

Also next EV you are going to buy may have port on the left side in the front and back in no longer is going to work if you already have charger mounted to accommodate id.4. My point either give two locations or standardize port location.

Besides that it's not a good location because you do have to go around the car to plug/unplug as it's not obvious if you approach from the driver side.

 

[WhoaItsAFactorial]

Also next EV you are going to buy may have port on the right side in the front and back in no longer is going to work if you already have charger mounted to accomdate id.4. My point either give two locations or standardize port location.

It has a 25' cord on the J1772, no matter where the next charge point is I'll be more than fine. Manufacturers aren't going to spend the money to put two ports on cars, and there is no chance the industry will standardize where the port is. They haven't done it on fuel tanks after 100 years, I just don't see it happening on charge ports either.

Besides that it's not a good location because you do have to go around the car to plug/unplug as it's not obvious if you approach from the driver side.

This is also dependent on how your parking is laid out. I have to walk past the right rear to get to my drivers door.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

VW approach is to always have filling port ( electrons or fuel on right side or left ( depending on market on which side is steering wheel)).
So by doing this if you are finished on emergency line you are not exposed to highway traffic if you need emergency juice from emergency vehicle.
It makes little more difficult to back in for some fast DC charging locations. But once you learn to live with it will become natural.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Asking for two ports is less likely to happen.

 

[Stu Ncal EV]

I think part of the reason is that the back motor acts as a high voltage interface to the battery so the charging port must be in the back to support DC fast charging. You don’t want a thick high voltage cable running from the front to the back of the car.

 

[null]

Fuel tanks are different and certainly much cost/complexity involved to add secondary fuel port. Gas stations are designed that you can park on either side and it's convenient for either port location but we are not talking about technology that was designed decades ago. Routing additional wire with an outlet should be negligible additional cost. Seems like great engineering minds didn't think through charging convenience which happens more frequently then filling car with dyno juice once a week.

 

[Stu Ncal EV]

Fuel tanks are different and certainly much cost/complexity involved to add secondary fuel port. Gas stations are designed that you can park on either side and it's convenient for either port location but we are not talking about technology that was designed decades ago. Routing additional wire with an outlet should be negligible additional cost. Seems like great engineering minds didn't think through charging convenience which happens more frequently then filling car with dyno juice once a week.

I respectfully disagree that the cost is negligible for the cable. Maybe for a leaf with slow charging only.

For DC fast charging the cable must be thick and heavy. The EA charger cables are not only thick but also have liquid cooling. Does the ID.4 cool the cables inside the car ? I doubt it but they probably have to minimize the cable length and resistance for DC fast charging. For level 2 charging the current is lower 40 amps so less heating than for 300 amps at DCFC

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

I respectfully disagree that the cost is negligible for the cable. Maybe for a leaf with slow charging only.

For DC fast charging the cable must be thick and heavy. The EA charger cables are not only thick but also have liquid cooling. Does the ID.4 cool the cables inside the car ? I doubt it but they probably have to minimize the cable length and resistance for DC fast charging. For level 2 charging the current is lower 40 amps so less heating than for 300 amps at DCFC

They are not cooled and they are very expensive for size needed to run on fast DC charger. It is doable but additional cost will make many people look other way if this becomes available. It would be much more complicated than just running another charging port and cables. It will need different distribution box with additional contactors and other safety items necessary to have one side disabled when other is used.

 

[Nai3t]

Fuel tanks are different and certainly much cost/complexity involved to add secondary fuel port.

Consider that with a second charging port, there would need to be a redundant safety system of some sort to ensure the unused port doesn't have a live 400 volts across it when the in-use port is charging. Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it could be as simple as "just" latching the unused door and cutting off the charge if it's detected to be opened. That would be sufficient 2° protection, but there would need to be something more.

I think it's far easier / cheaper to add a second fuel filler neck.

 

[RLC]

... for me... It's not the easily scratchable glossy plastics or touch senstive controls or lack of some lighted controls or lack of dedicated rear window buttons or lack of one pedal driving or lack of heat pump in US version or not so fast charging but... it's the damn charging port location...

Why on earth would they pick rear right location? IMO it's one of the worst locations for EV which meant to spend most of the time charging at home. I would have been fine with front like in Leaf or front left side like in I had in Volt/Bolt or even rear left would have been ok like in Tesla. Of course VW isn't the only one who is guilty of that, Hyundai/Kia as well as Toyota also doing the same thing, there are some China made EVs using right front location.

There are a few options how to solve it for manufacturers. Either 1)

... for me... It's not the easily scratchable glossy plastics or touch senstive controls or lack of some lighted controls or lack of dedicated rear window buttons or lack of one pedal driving or lack of heat pump in US version or not so fast charging but... it's the damn charging port location...

Why on earth would they pick rear right location? IMO it's one of the worst locations for EV which meant to spend most of the time charging at home. I would have been fine with front like in Leaf or front left side like in I had in Volt/Bolt or even rear left would have been ok like in Tesla. Of course VW isn't the only one who is guilty of that, Hyundai/Kia as well as Toyota also doing the same thing, there are some China made EVs using right front location.

There are a few options how to solve it for manufacturers. Either 1) standardize location of the port 2) add two locations on both sides at least

Right side charging port works well for curb side charging, such as what Los Angeles is trying out.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Simple suggestion would be using extension J1772 cable for people who have limited access to the charging port.
This is for L1 or L2 charging scenarios. I have seen aftermarket solutions and you can buy them. Just make sure you go with thicker cable for minimum resistance losses and bullet proof your investment.
Future EV will have 80A onboard inverter for L2 charging, or ability to change current settings on EVSE side if budget dosent allow more expensive J1772 extension cable.

 

[PANZERidIV]

Yes the placement of the charging
port on the right side rear is a real
deal breaker. Damn you VW!

I think price is by far the biggest downside for the ID.4 (plus most other EV’s) to the average American. Almost $900 a month (X 84 months) for a low 2.25% loan and car insurance is ridiculous!

 

[null]

Right side charging port works well for curb side charging, such as what Los Angeles is trying out.

Left side rear like in Tesla would have been fine too, but again most of the time people will be charging at home anyway.

Frankly I always appreciated having fuel fill on the left side as it's easier accessed as you exit the car and less chance of driving off with open gas door or worse gas filler gun still inside...

 

[Nai3t]

Hey as long as the charge port door is opposite the side the exhaust pipe is on, I'm good.

 

[Atlant]

From a usability point of view, the Nissan Leaf had it exactly right with the charge port up front and centered.

From a weather reliability point of view? I don't know.

My Volt has the charge port on the front left fender and the gasoline port on the right rear fender; that works well (although Chevy's fancy remote-controlled charge port door was unreliable and they eventually ditched it for an ordinary push-push door).

The ID.4's charge port location on the right rear is clearly sub-optimal for DCFC charging as you usually have to back in. But it works fine for my Level-2 charging because if I pull up right against the garage door (“beeeeeeeeeeep!”), the VW charge port is almost aligned with the Volt's charge port so swapping the EVSE cable back and forth is trivially easy.

 

[Spin]

The biggest downside of the ID.4? Not even close. To me the biggest downside is the lack of timely communication from VW. After 18 months of ownership, we finally received an email about our OTA updates. I still haven't heard from my dealer about bringing it in.
I knew where the chargeport was when I purchased the car and installed my L2 accordingly.

 

[928GTS]

... for me... It's not the easily scratchable glossy plastics or touch senstive controls or lack of some lighted controls or lack of dedicated rear window buttons or lack of one pedal driving or lack of heat pump in US version or not so fast charging but... it's the damn charging port location...

Why on earth would they pick rear right location? IMO it's one of the worst locations for EV which meant to spend most of the time charging at home. I would have been fine with front like in Leaf or front left side like in I had in Volt/Bolt or even rear left would have been ok like in Tesla. Of course VW isn't the only one who is guilty of that, Hyundai/Kia as well as Toyota also doing the same thing, there are some China made EVs using right front location.

There are a few options how to solve it for manufacturers. Either 1) standardize location of the port 2) add two locations on both sides at least

The charging port location is perfect for me. My level 2 hardwired charger is 4 feet away and no one can trip over the cord.

If the location of the charging port is such a big deal for you, why did you purchase the ID4 in the first place without doing your homework first?