It will go quietly into the night
It’s an excellent EV, but VW’s e-Golf is already old-fashioned in some ways, writes Richard Bosselman.
Incredible as it sounds, the best wholly battery-reliant car Volkswagen presently offers has no future. While VW’s electric car onslaught will deliver many exciting options, another e-Golf won’t be among them.
As oxymoronic as it might sound, pulling the plug is positive progress, being an outcome from something you’ve surely heard about: VW’s ID programme.
Investment is running into the billions, production is set to reach 1 million cars a year by 2025 and there’s a huge family of VW cars. Actually, VW Group cars. Dozens of them, all commonly underpinned. Quite some undertaking.
With ID powering up, VW has logically decided the Golf won’t need to feature another batterypure format, thus the new eighth-gen line coming next September peaks with hybrids and hands the full-blown role to the like-sized ID.3. Eventually, in our case. For the next year at least, ID is all but Europe-bound, being a key factor in ensuring VW plays to new European Union emissions rules.
So even though the e-Golf is on a farewell drive at home, its tour of duty here conceivably could last another year, assuming supply allows.
It could be an interesting time. The more we learn about ID.3, the better it sounds: improved range, a funky new styling direction, more tech and sharper pricing position. VW is on record saying ID.3 will be 40 per cent cheaper to produce than the e-Golf. If those promises fulfil, we’re in for an exciting time.
Consider e-Golf purely in the here and now and it’s dealing with issues that are hardly unheard of in EV-dom.
First, there’s the price. This car’s $62,990 introductory price has since risen by $5500, and that’s a precarious thing. VW’s quality is good, but it’s not a premium brand. Other Golfs are more comfortably placed at the low end of the $60k zone. And, of course, with Golf 8 out in Europe, the generation we still get is officially outdated. All good reasons for dialling back the dollars.
What about the range? Factory optimism about the ID.3 being up for 330km to 550km off a charge, depending on the battery set it has, undoubtedly makes the e-Golf’s distributor-proposed probability of no more than 220km driving look somewhat yesteryear. Yet, from my experience, you needn’t think that’s all it can do. Twice after healthy charging the trip computer cited markedly more range than this and it seemed a fair call.
In any event, my regular driving routine made it simple to keep the battery pepped just by following brand advice – to replenish the battery in small frequent doses. Doing so is neither time-consuming nor expensive. The biggest single hit was $11.76 for a 30-minute 16.53kWh direct current boost that had it to 100 per cent.
How much it draws depends on your own style and which driving mode you prefer. The outright Eco mode is spectacular yet you needn’t suffer the penury of no air con and top speed restricting to 90kmh, as just the regular setting that still allows comforts is thrifty enough. Even the performance mode is sensibly calibrated.
One easily accomplished trick to achieve good outcomes is to make the most of the coasting function. Even on relatively level terrain, when you come off the throttle pedal, it carries plenty of momentum. You can choose to adjust the rate at which the car
regenerates power and it’ll also recoup some energy when braking. There’s a very accurate active info display to show the results.
Being a Golf is also a bonus. Yes, the under-bonnet transplant for an electric motor looks a bit rubbish, because it’s obviously designed for a proper engine and its plumbing. As much as locating the recharge port in the fuel filler is an engineering logic, it also required me to reverse to a fast charger, else the cable wouldn’t reach.
That it not only has, save for the blanked-off grille and some stripes in blue (VW’s eco colour) plus the weird wind-cheating alloys, the exterior appearance of a regular Golf but the driving feel of one as well is a real plus.
The way it drives is improved by the added weight of the electrical gear lending a more planted feel, while the power delivery is impressively linear and smooth. If you bury the pedal, it is capable of seriously quick acceleration but that’s also about the only time you’ll hear that EV shrillness. Otherwise the powertrain is so quiet you get to enjoy an almost eerie calmness.
And yes, though this generation of Golf is starting to show its age, it’s still a really nice environment and a practical one, too, except that the boot capacity is affected if you decide to carry the bagload of charging cables around, these being quite bulky.
Design starkness is part of the Golf ethos so, even with the $3500 cost-extra Vienna leather upholstery with heating function for the front seats, there’s an air of utilitarianism, but is all very comfortable and well sorted. The instrument panel is naturally bespoke – no tachometer, obviously – but nicely rendered.
Even if you see it as being flawed, the e-Golf certainly demonstrates how dedicated VW is to engineering excellence. The quality look and feel of a car for which electric operation was surely secondary suggests that the totally dedicated product we’ve yet to see should be very polished indeed.