First drive: 2016 Volkswagen e-Golf in Germany

First drive: 2016 Volkswagen e-Golf in Germany

2016 Volkswagen e-Golf

With all the controversy surrounding Volkswagen’s current woes with diesel cars, it is easy to forget that dirty diesel was never a viable environmentally-friendly alternative to petrol, ever. Diesel cars became a “thing” in certain parts of the world because they offered better mileage, which is all their buyers cared about, the environment be damned. But diesel cars have a variety of costly, heavy and inefficient add-ons to make them cleaner, just to meet tough emissions laws in Europe. If you want the cheapest form of energy for your car, there’s no better option than going electric. We tried out the all-electric VW e-Golf at Wolfsburg, Germany the other day, and we believe it holds the key to VW’s fortunes going forward.

The Volkswagen e-Golf looks pretty much like a regular Golf, except that the front fascia is unique with its LED headlights and running lamps on the bumper, and the blue line running through the mostly-blocked grille. As further clues to its non-traditional nature, there’s no exhaust tip in the rear, and the wheels are seemingly designed for more aerodynamic efficiency.

2016 Volkswagen e-Golf 4

Inside, there are absolutely no clues to this Golf’s electric abilities, other than some extra display options in the gauges for battery-related read-outs. There’s some blue stitching in here as well, as well as a couple of subtle e-Golf badges. Out back, the boot space seems to be about the same as a regular Golf, as VW has somehow managed to stuff the battery pack under the rear seat.

Weighing in at 170 kg more than a regular Golf, and powered by a 24.2-kWh battery, there is no petrol engine backing it up, hence it runs fully on electric power. The battery is either charged up by the regenerative braking system or by being plugged into a 240V wall-mount charger, the latter taking less than 4 hours to do so. There’s an 8-year warranty on the battery, and it’s expected to last at least 10 or more years, although a replacement after that could cost almost Dhs 50,000 at current prices, according to a VW spokesman. That’s assuming battery prices don’t go way down a decade from now, which it probably will.

2015 Volkswagen e-Golf cutaway

The synchronous AC permanent-magnet electric motor makes the equivalent of 115 hp and 270 Nm of torque. The range is claimed to be about 150 km, with a 0-100 kph time of about 10 seconds, but interestingly enough, VW says it can do 0-50 kph quicker than a Golf GTI. We can confirm that the acceleration is brisk from idle, giving the sense that the car is quicker than it really is. But even at speeds between 80 kph and 120 kph, it doesn’t feel particularly underpowered. Speed picks up at a decent pace if you notice the speedo, as you’ll never feel it by the seat of your pants due to the complete lack of engine noise as well as the absence of shift-shock, as there’s only a 1-speed automatic transmission.

The only noises you will hear are a barely-noticeable hum and the usual road noise, so things aren’t eerily quiet in the cabin. The well-weighted steering does not offer much feedback, but is direct and responsive. Combined with the Euro-style mildly firm suspension tuning, the ride is reasonably comfortable with a hint of jitter on some poor surfaces. We took it up to 160 kph and the car was perfectly stable.

If we had a complaint, it’d be the light brake-pedal feel, which doesn’t do much until pressed in a fair bit, so stops can be a little jerky. As far as we know, it’s the side-effect of a regenerative braking system. There’s also some throttle lag on take-off, but maybe this is because the powertrain completely turns off on standstill.

2016 Volkswagen e-Golf 5

There’s no Sport mode in this car, although there’s Eco and Eco+ modes that progressively limit your top speed and acceleration while offering more active regeneration of power. That hints at the kind of car it is, but we’d say the car is still a fairly entertaining drive, with controlled body motions and generally good handling.

At the end of the day, it really just boils down to price. If the e-Golf came here, it’d be about the same price as a Golf R. At current petrol prices, if all you’re looking for is saving money, it’s not the right time to pine for one of these yet. But if you truly want to save the environment and don’t do a lot of long-distance trips, this is the kind of car you’d want. With Dubai setting up more charging stations in the near future, VW has taken the step of bringing in 10 Golf GTE models, essentially the petrol-electric hybrid version of the e-Golf that’s being touted as a green GTI, so expect to see cars like these on Middle East streets soon.

Photos by Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury.

What do you think?

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Comments

  1. Lovely little car. The problem with adoption is the price, government incentives would go a long way!

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