Now that the e-Golf is available in some European countries, and can be pre-ordered in the UK, full specifications have been released by Volkswagen. The electric motor in the Golf is rated at 114 horsepower and 119 lb-ft of torque. A 24.2 kWh lithium-ion battery pack powers the Golf, and gives a range of around 118 miles on the NEDC test cycle - that puts the range somewhere around 80 miles for the North American test. The Volkswagen e-Golf electric motor is rated at 85 kW and provides drive power, linked to the front wheels through a single speed gearbox. Charging times are 13 hours on a standard wall socket, and 8 hours with an optional ‘wallbox’. Using the combined charging system and a DC supply, a quick charge from flat to 80% can be achieved in 35 minutes. Different than other electric vehicle manufacturers, Volkswagen has decided to offer an optional heat pump. The e-Golf is the first production Volkswagen to use full LED headlights. They produce brighter light, and of course use less electricity than the typical xenon bulbs. To set the e-Golf apart from the gasoline powered Golf, the automaker has added blue stitching on interior upholstery, as well as a signature blue strip that runs the width of the radiator grille and into the headlights. The e-Golf also has unique C shaped LED daytime running lights in the front bumper. 7.2 kW onboard charger. The e-Golf’s 24 kWh lithium ion battery pack is covered with an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty. Volkswagen says they developed the battery pack with the “intention of it having 80 per cent of its original capacity after 10 years’ use.” The target is based on an electric vehicle travelling about 9000 miles annually.
With the rear seats folded down, the Golf is cavernous. However, it’s unsurprisingly impossible to fold the seats down when you have two small children, each of whom comes with one large car seat. Thus, for me, today, the trunk is far smaller than I’d prefer, unless I’m willing to stack things on top of each other. Back in the driver’s seat, I could make an argument that the Digital Cockpit is a mistake, as it will look dated in a few years. Be that as it may, the flexibility of the dash makes me think it’s the right answer. Being able to see a map of where the navigation is directing you right in between your speedometer and tachometer is pretty great. Furthermore, the configurability of the Digital Cockpit is enough to keep me busy for quite some time. I count it as a win. Curiously, the R also exposes its heritage as an affordable car. Most European cars equipped with an automatic transmission have a “kickdown” switch.
When you floor the car, and then press the pedal just a bit further, the car takes that as “GIVE ME ALL SHE’S GOT”. It will downshift as much as possible, in addition to the car already being floored. The Golf R I drove had a kickdown switch. The manual Golf R I drove… had a kickdown switch. Which does absolutely nothing. Apparently the Volkswagen parts bin had it on special! The GTI and R alike also suffer from a fatal flaw: the volume and on/off button for the infotainment. The button has a standard power icon on it, which makes perfect sense. However, that power icon twists when you adjust the volume. As someone who is, shall we say, a touch anal-retentive, this is infuriating. The problem is fixed by only adjusting the volume via the steering wheel controls, but, hoo boy, it’s annoying. The Golf does have lane keeping aids and automated cruise control, but it doesn’t have full-on automated piloting, which is too bad. The controls for all of these automated driving aids are pretty straightforward.
The lane keeping, left to its own devices, will basically ping-pong between the edges of the lane, but it’s not comparable to true automated driving systems like the one on Erin’s XC90. The Golf does best the Volvo on the way it displays your desired versus actual speed when using cruise control. When in Erin’s car, I often find myself camping in the slow lane for a while, going well under the speed limit, because it’s not entirely obvious that the car has slowed under my desired speed due to traffic. In the Golf R, it helpfully has a thick red bar to indicate the car has slowed below its cruise setting; it shows a thick green bar if you manually accelerate over the cruise setting. The infotainment is good, but largely unremarkable. The same goes for the navigation. One could argue “unremarkable” is the mark of a successful implementation — a system that doesn’t get in the way is in many ways a great system.
