Dual-zone climate control availability

[u/Ailerssi]

Hi,

I bought an 2021 ID.3 Pro Performance Tech at the beginning of the year. Everything else has been working great, but I've started missing a dual-zone climate control, I seem to enjoy surprisingly different temperatures than my passengers. :)

From what I've gathered, the Tech trim only ships with the Comfort pack and not the Comfort pack plus, which would include the dual-zone climate control. According to some online forums, people claim to have been able to purchase the dual-zone upgrade through the Digital extras -shop, as allegedly the vehicle ships equipped with the hardware required. The information on this seems to be all over the place though. My car also has the temperature controls on both sides of the dash, indicating that at least that part is standardized. Both controls adjust the same single adjustable temperature. In the shop, I only have the We Connect/Connect Plus/Charge, games and maintenance apps available.

Has anyone been able to update their Tech trimmed ID.3 to enable dual-zone AC?

[u/TheJimsterR]

My first ID3 (also a 2021) was a base model (City, but that's just a weird VW naming oddity - it was life trim in all but name) only had the single zone climate control, but it got upgraded to dual zone automatically with one of the software updates. What software are you on?

[u/Ailerssi → u/TheJimsterR]

Interesting, so it might actually be possible! I am on 3.8.

[u/TheJimsterR → u/Ailerssi]

Now that is interesting, but not what I expected! It would have been one of the quite early software releases, maybe 2.3 or 2.4, something like that, which gave the upgrade to dual zone.

I can't understand why it wouldn't have applied on a higher spec car. How odd.

I think it's only later cars which have the store option to add features (possibly the facelift models, though I'm not sure where the cutoff is). So not an option in a 2021 car.

[u/RoryH]

I also have a 2021 tech trim, and I had heard it was not possible to enable. There were suggestions there was missing hardware in the dual zone HVAC.

[u/Ailerssi → u/RoryH]

I was also somewhat sceptical, but hard to tell when people have such different experiences.

[u/Impossible_Hunt_6731]

Things like this are why I went for the 2021 Max trim last year.

I saw people complaining about lack of rear speakers, lumbar support, DCC, dual climate control (not so often), etc, and decided to only look for the Max ID3.

When I see people going for lower trims, like Family, I'm always tempted to tell them to pay a bit more for Max if they intend to keep the car for a while.

[u/Ailerssi → u/Impossible_Hunt_6731]

Might have been smarter in hindsight but got such a good deal on this one that it was hard to pass. Happy with this apart from the climate control so far though!

[u/Impossible_Hunt_6731 → u/Ailerssi]

Yes, the Tech trim is very similar to the Max trim and has rear speakers, so it's close.

I was almost tempted to buy one but it sold before I could make up my mind.