Test: Volkswagen e-Golf

Update: Currently there is high discounts on the e-Golf, We are therefore updating once again the e-car articles, tests and driving reports. This original article is from the 12. July 2015

Of course, an electric car is fun and fun. Without engine sound, but also without a shift jerk, interruption of traction or the search for the right gear. So an electric car just always has a pound (or watt) to refuel. Once pulled on the virtual Watt linkage and an e-mobile attracts. Funnily enough, that's where it's most fun where you least expect it: in the country!

Bestseller under power

E-Golf in the driving report

Sometimes the revolution is so unimpressive

The E-Golf looks like any other Golf. The small details that were thought up in Wolfsburg to visually adapt the E-Golf are a gift. The daytime running lights in the smart arch in the bumper look good. But basically the revolution of the E-Golf is that it looks like a “normal” car and not, as in many other cases or with a well-known manufacturer from Bavaria, like homework from a Waldorf school.

The electric Golf adopts the electrified “Modular Transverse Matrix” (MQB). Because they've done it in Wolfsburg and are assembling the E-Golf in the same way as every other Volkswagen Golf. The piecemeal nature of the MQB allows for exactly that. Petrol, diesel, natural gas, electric – all on one production line. This probably took a lot of brainpower in advance, but the result is more than convincing.

The electric golf is a highly successful car. And that he looks like the boring long-term bestseller of the same segment, should be more than useful for the revolution that is slowly becoming necessary in order to finally get the e-mobility.

In the electric golf, you do not have to feel like a strange illness is written on your face.

Pressure is always there

A 115 hp electric motor is responsible for the hearty acceleration from the stop line. He sits at the front and drives the front axle. All golf. 270 Nm from zero speed means “almost-GTI” level, only much better. And if you've had enough fun in the city and have had enough of the frustrated faces of your fellow human beings, you can take the e-Golf out of the city. my-auto-blog is based in the country. We have “traffic-free” every day. So, our test roads are always “free of any traffic jams”.

And then you let the E-Golf circle over the country road, tight corners up the hill, slight valleys, fast corners, bitchy road surfaces. And already after the first bend you get enlightened:

Gasoline can just be a temporary solution!

The force, the spontaneity, the immediate reaction of the electric motor and the delivery of “torque”, no matter what speed, no matter whether 30 km / h and a tight corner, 60 km / h and another curve, from a standstill or while driving - when No matter how you pull on the “virtual Watt linkage”, the E-Golf fulfills a promise of performance that you were not previously aware of.

It's not about brutal driving values, it's also not about plucking the last fold of the asphalt from the surface - of course, sporty cars are generally more sporty on the road.

You should not race

The Eco tires with their unusually high cross-section are completely unsuitable for managing G-forces in curves and that's a good thing. The real e-driving experience can be enjoyed all the more finely. The E-Golf recuperates by pulling the former gear lever in level “B” - with a little practice, this is in many cases enough to decelerate without touching the brake. Here too, recuperation takes place immediately. And as soon as you come out of the curve, you don't look for the right gear, you don't wait for a little torque peak, for boost pressure or power peaks - you use the up to 270 Nm - they're there when you need them. That changes the entire perspective. Why do you have to bother with half-baked things like gasoline engines and manual transmissions?

The rest is quickly told. The fat 24,2 kWh battery pack (at that time it was still 24,2 kWh, today it is 35,8 kWh) tarnishes the power-to-weight ratio of the E-Golf with its weight of a good 300 kg and drives its curb weight of 1.585 kg into the middle class. In return, the rest of the Golf always looks confident. Massive, but valuable. In the age of e-mobility experiments, the e-golf conveys the calming feeling of a home port.

>>> Read more, go to page 2 | Test Volkswagen electric golf

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