Otherwise it looks just like the conservative and Teutonic, but attractive, VW’s compact. For a compact car the Golf has among the best designs for ingress and egress, noticed especially by guys like me who are bigger, and those taller, than normal. The driver’s seat is designed with more adjustment range than most. Instrumentation and dash design look conventional and they simply add readouts relevant to the electric powertrain. Most important, in my view, is the one showing the range, or how many miles worth of electrons we have left. The generous and comfortable leatherette seats, and all the other trim inside, pander not to trendiness or unnecessary excess. For its size Golf offers among the best levels of interior and cargo volume. The battery pack only reduces the cargo area by about 10% leaving a decent 22.8 cubic feet for our stuff, and 42.3 cubic feet with the rear seat backs folded.
The powertrain is, of course, the big news here. Introduced in 2014 this is VW’s first all-electric car. It is a front-wheel drive, zero-emission, compact, 4-door sedan. The 85kw electric motor is good for 115 horsepower and an amazing 199 pound-feet of torque. All that torque is available from a dead stop, unlike an internal combustion engine that has to get spinning before you get to the max torque level. That means initial acceleration gets your attention quickly but then it begins running out of breath after about 30 or 40 mph. The 0-to-60 time is an unimpressive 10 seconds, but 0-to-30 is mighty quick. And, an aggressive regenerative braking scheme can add some range as well with a bump of the shifter to capture kinetic energy normally lost in stopping. With maximum regeneration selected I could drive all the way across town without touching the brake pedal just using the motor/generator’s resistance to do the stopping. The EPA has a convoluted formula for calculating an electric car’s equivalent of miles per gallon that I won’t pretend to understand. It is meant to make some a comparison between electrics.
The e-Golf is rated at 126 eMPG in the city, 105 on the highway and 116 eMPG combined. I take from that that the e-Golf is at least 3 times more efficient that most economy cars. 8,250 in fuel costs, which makes that essentially the pay-off period if you compensate for the extra cost of the electric powertrain over the gas version of a comparably equipped Golf. More important is the range - the number of miles one can get on a charge. The eGolf’s real world number is just over 100 miles. That would more than satisfy most motorists’ daily needs. Living in a rural area and being a roadie covering events often 70 miles from home I would be stuck a good share of the time. If I knew I would have access to a 240V charging station and I would be at my destination for more than a few hours I might get by. But most people do not have the longer distance needs that I have.
Even so, this would make a great second car even for me. Recharging time using just a standard 110V outlet takes a long, long time - overnight at least from if charging from very low to full charge. Using the 110 is how I had to do it, but if you owned an e-Golf, or any electric car, you’d certainly want a 240V, 30-amp charging unit installed. Handling and road dynamics is about the same as the conventional Golf, that is, impressively tight, firm and quick. The electro-mechanical steering has a lighter feel with not much feedback but is precise. Suspension tuning nicely balances comfort and sportiness. Most impressive is the quietness. Yes, we know, there is no engine to make noise, but even at extra legal speeds on rough highways the road/tire and wind noise do not intrude on the cabin. At low speeds an artificially generated noise like an engine thrum warns pedestrians (perhaps blind or with backs turned) to the presence of the car.
