Volkswagen has announced a raft of upgrades for its ID.4 and ID.5 electric SUV models with tech and trim changes on the way. 

The big(ger) news is that the ID.4 and ID.5 will now come with larger usable capacity on their batteries, with the smallest 52kWh batteries jumping to 58Wh, and the single motor 77kWh numbers increasing to 79kWh. 

Those 58kWh models get a range boost to 265 miles and the Pro Essential, Pro Match and Pro Black versions of the cars are still the rangiest with 347 miles available in the ID.4 and 351 miles from the ID.5 thanks to its slipperier shape. 

The GTX-badged models will benefit from a decrease in usable battery (wait, what?) to 77kWh but still get a range bump thanks to the upgrades. The other four-wheel-drive (or 4MOTION in VW speak) versions of the ID.4 and ID.5 will stay at 77kWh. Don’t try and understand the detail here, it’ll make your head hurt.

All the cars will now come with V2L and bidirectional charging capability (in conjunction with adapters that you’ll have to buy separately from VW) that will mean you can run electronics off your car battery and even use the car to power your house if you’ve got the place fitted out with the requisite smart tech to do it. 

​Volkswagen also says that it has made improvements to the infotainment, tripled the charging speed on its wireless phone charging pads to 15W and brought back physical buttons on the steering wheels. 

Volkswagen says that the range starts from £36,995, with entry car prices staying the same, but other specs seeing an increase of around £5/600. Because of the technical changes VW’s making it’ll have to reapply for the UK government’s plug-in car grant, but we’re told VW will keep in touch on how that goes.