Performance drivers have the 'R' and GTi that provide grin-inducing driving, while more budget-conscious high-mileage motorists have a range of economical diesels. With eGolf you get a five-door hatchback that runs on rechargeable batteries only.
The elephant in the room is the fact that the e-Golf costs over €32,000. That's €12,000 more than the entry model Golf - €12,000 buys a lot of fuel.
e-Golf is rapid from a standing start and the car is very easy to use day-to-day. There is an automatic gearbox and you can also use the gear shift-lever to select one of three levels of brake energy regeneration force.
When you lift off the accelerator the car harnesses the kinetic energy built up - the wheels acting like a bicycle's dynamo - to charge up the battery pack. This allows you to drive while hardly needing the brake pedal to slow down.
On the road e-Golf offers three driving power modes. 'Normal' offers all the horsepower and torque the electric motor can produce. 'Economy' mode cuts the power down a bit and reduces electricity consumption in the cabin, while 'Economy +' limits top speed to 95km/h and kills the aircon/heater.
A true compliment to e-Golf is that it pretty much looks like a regular Golf. Marking it out are distinctive daytime running lamps, some nice blue trim lines and high profile tyres on aerodynamic alloy wheels. There isn't even a weird charging flap, just a regular fuel filler flap.
In the boot you get a repair kit (so no spare wheel) and a very important bag with two electric cables in it. One has a domestic three-pin plug at one end and the other is an EV car cable that connects to most public/private EV charging points. Public charging is presently free (as an incentive) while some points offer fast charging. Fast charging requires a special socket on the car.
After a full overnight charge e-Golf has a range of about 190 kilometres, but this is an ideal world figure. Try as we might, and driving like angels, we could not get more than 120km range on a 'full tank' of electricity. Range anxiety is something all electric vehicle owners suffer from, unless they fit the genuine target market for an EV, i.e., a low mileage city dweller who never has to journey beyond 80 kilometres per day. If that's you then an e-Golf (and other EV rivals) will work well.
Frequently, in an effort to simply get to where we needed to go, we drove dressed for winter - just so we didn't have to turn the heater on and use precious electricity. However, you can programme the heater to pre-heat the interior when it is charging.
With EVs you become territorial about charging stations and the dedicated parking bays that come with them. Public charge points are few and all-too-far between. Drivers of conventional cars can be oblivious to the need to keep these spaces free for their intended use.
Once, while parked at a two-bay, two-car charging point getting a fast charge (30 minutes added about 60 kilometres to my range) a car horn was blown in my direction by an irate Nissan Leaf owner. Already annoyed at having to detour to charge up I let the driver vent his steam and waited as the driver of the much more affordable Leaf slowly observed the big cable sticking into my fuel filler cap! The Leaf quietly parked in the bay beside me. As I stared down my rival, I imagined a rumble from West Side Story with Leaf and e-Golf owners… Your mind tends to wander when you have to kill time charging up!
EVs may cost just a few euro to charge at home but you end up spending a lot more than you bargained for on coffee and lost time when you have to top up on the road.
A price of €32,660 (after government grants etc.) is a lot for a toy, but at least with e-Golf, batteries are included!
Michael Sheridan
