Pulling up short! TECH SPEC
The eGolf has a lot of oomph for an electric car but it’s not cut out for long distances
RI collected the Volkswagen eGolf in south Dublin and had a few errands to run there. The car was telling me I had range available of around 140km, but that was a little unnerving, given that home in north Wexford was 88km away and the way you drive impacts on range. By the time I was nearing Coyne’s Cross Applegreen service station on the M11, I thought it prudent to power up, but there were two Nissan LEAFs already there. Fortunately, one person was almost finished, so I hooked the car up and had a Burger King meal to while away 30 minutes, and boosted the range.
I don’t have a home charge point, just a standard socket with the cable trailing out the window. On standard domestic supply, it takes 13 hours to fully juice the battery, but I only had a few things to do locally and that was fine for most of the week. Only when I needed to get back to Dublin did it become an issue, so I left it on all day, because I had to drive to the airport via an overnight stop at my sister’s in Dún Laoghaire. I made it there no problem, but I also wanted to leave enough charge in it so the people from VW could get it back to base. So, while I was having brunch in Dalkey last Sunday, I left it on a public charge point at the Dart station. It’s one of the more common ones you’ll see about the place, better than home charging but not as quick as the fast chargers in the likes of Applegreen, where you’ll get an 80% charge in about 30 minutes.
An hour later, the range had increased by only 40km, so when I eventually drove to the airport, I took the slower but more direct route via the EastLink Bridge and Port Tunnel (22.7km), rather than the quicker but longer M50 route, double the distance at 44km.
And that’s the problem for those of us outside cities – we always have to think ahead and think smart when driving electric cars. Nothing can be left to chance, because it’s not like you can walk to a garage and fill a can if you run out of petrol.
The eGolf has a WLTP-certified range of 230km, but in cold weather with the aircon running, you’ll get a lot less. I ended up doing most of my city driving in ECO+ mode, which offers additional range but at the expense of enjoying proper heating.
You quickly learn tricks, speeding up to brake as sharply as is safe and send regenerated energy back to the battery to gain a few extra kilometres.
In a city, this wouldn’t matter, and this remains firmly a car that is more suitable for those whose daily commute is, I would venture for peace of mind and comfort, no more than a 100km round trip.
As electric cars go, it remains one of my favourites. It brings all the usual Golf handling to the party and the fabulous linear acceleration that only electric cars provide. There might be no noise from the electric motor, but there’s still a lovely bit of oomph when you floor it. Unusually, it also feels just as spacious as a standard Golf, even in the boot, which often is a casualty of battery packs.
The car cost €35,955 net of Government subsidies (the SEAI grant and VRT rebate) and my test model came with extras – metallic paint and a technology upgrade pack that included park distance control, high-beam light assist, folding exterior mirrors and surround lighting, and also Vienna leather upholstery rather than the standard cloth – that brought the total up to €39,242.
There are other EVs out there with better range – the Renault Zoë, Hyundai Kona and KIA eNiro, for starters – but the Golf, in its class, definitely is the most fun to drive.
Setting that against your own driving needs is the crucial thing to consider before you think of buying, because if I learned anything it’s that even the shorter runs can be longer than you think when you’re watching that range display dropping. A collection from my local An Post sorting office cost me 16 kilometres, which came as something of a surprise.
If you did buy an eGolf, you’d love the car, for sure, but the trick is to reach the green, not get stuck on the fairway. ANGE is everything when it comes to electric cars, especially when, like me, you live in a rural area rather than in a city. This poses other problems too, though, not least the limited number of public charge points available on main intercity routes.