After some research and help from some friendly TMC members, I have decided to rent a VW e-Golf from Europcar for my three week trip to the North Island in June. I know those are 230/240V and 50Hz, but how many amps are they typically? Suitable for overnight charging? Of course the e-Golf has a relatively small battery, I think about 36kWh, so it should be easy to charge up overnight even on a low amperage outlet. The Chargenet network appears to offer CCS and CHAdeMO charging outlets, and there is one in Hamilton. That’s the one I’m going to need because my longest drive of the trip is from Auckland to Lake Taupo. Fingers crossed this EV is going to work for me. I’m not used to driving such a short range car! But renting a Tesla in NZ is just too expensive. Australia and New Zealand share electric standards.
99.9% of these are the 10 Amp variety common throughout homes in these countries. The 15A version has a wider bottom Earth plug so is easily identifiable. You can’t insert a 15A plug into a 10 A receptacle (called a GPO for General Purpose Outlet) and you will melt it if you try to draw more than 10 Amps from one. The Australian / NZ Tesla UMC comes with a 10A plug tail And will not let you draw more than 10 Amps. Fortunately all domestic electrical outlets are 240V in NZ giving you 2.4Kw Charging which will fill your e-Golf in about 10 hours for the 24 KWh version and most Caravan parks with powered sites have a 15A GPO. I’m guessing the T2 refers to the Type 2 or Mennekes IEC62196 plug standard. Charge port that is becoming the standard in both countries. Most likely you can take advantage of CCS2 DC charging available through Charge NZ but as no e-Golfs came to Australia where I live I will leave that up to a NZ local. Found this page on the Leading the charge NZ website. The non profit started by Steve West who also started ChargeNet NZ. Scroll down and it lists the e-Golf, both 24 and 36 KWh version and indicates that they fast charge which I presume means CCS2.
We digress. VW said it expects the mild-hybrid system, which uses a belt-driven starter generator, will save about one-tenth of a gallon of gasoline for every 62 miles driven. Those are puny numbers, but they do add up. Meanwhile, the 48-volt system provides a few other benefits. It can boost torque, and when a driver takes their foot off the accelerator, the car continues to drive, or "sail," without consuming more fuel. VW also promised the stop-start system is absolutely seamless, thanks to the quick response of the 48-volt electrical architecture and the belt-driven starter. Other powertrain details for the next Golf aren't clear yet, but we do know the car is getting an all-digital makeover inside. Screens will replace analog gauges, likely as standard. However, we'll have to wait and see if VW will grace Americans with the next-generation hatchback at all. If the brand does, we likely won't experience the 48-volt mild-hybrid tech, at least not with the engines mentioned above.
That is the defiant message sprayed across a gritty Berlin landscape that features heavily in Volkswagen's official photography for the new Tiguan SUV(with Car DVD). Bolder than the "Access all areas" official slogan for the second-generation crossover, the street art presents a fitting motto for a brand with a fight on its hands. This Tiguan is the first new model to emerge since Volkswagen came crashing to earth in 2015, admitting that it manipulated engine management software in 11 million vehicles so cars could pass laboratory tests before polluting in the real world. The scandal shattered trust in a household name and exposed serious flaws in technical capabilities at the core of the brand. It's fair to say, then, that the new Tiguan is a model under pressure to deliver results for the brand in the hearts and minds of buyers as well as the boardroom. Many car companies like to describe their latest offerings as "all new", even if the reality is closer to a facelift than a fundamental redesign.
