New Volkswagen e-Golf Priced, Comes With 50% Larger Battery

The 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf will go 50% further on a single battery charge. That not surprising, since the battery in the new car is 50% larger — 35.8 kWh versus 24.2 kWh. The EPA has just rated the new e-Golf as having 125 miles of range and an MPGe rating of 119. Assuming 13 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, the EPA estimates an annual fuel cost of $550.

Volkswagen has even slipped a more powerful (100 kW, 134 horsepower) electric motor under the bonnet for faster acceleration. The latest e-Golf now needs just a tick more than 9 seconds to get itself up to 60 mph. Top speed is listed as 93 mph. If that seems low, ask yourself, “When was the last time I needed to go faster than 93 miles per hour?”

The 2017 e-Golf comes with other significant upgrades as well. A 7.2 kilowatt charger is now standard equipment on SE and SEL Premium models. That means the battery can be fully charged in less than 6 hours using a Level 2 240 volt charger. Customers can also upgrade to DC fast charging, which charges the battery to 80% range in under an hour.

The latest e-Golf will be in showrooms in the US in the Spring (that means sometime before June 22). While prices for American customers have not been announced, the company said earlier this week that the car would start at €34,900 in Europe. That translates to $36934 at today’s exchange rate or 1 Euro to 1.06 dollars.

This is the third iteration of the electrified Golf. By all reports, it is a competent car. But at just a few dollars less than a Chevy Bolt which has almost 100 more miles of range per battery charge, is it competitive? Most people would be hard pressed to say yes. It’s wonderful that e-Golf is now capable of more well over 100 miles of electric driving. The previous version ran out of electrons at about the 83 mile mark.

It also needs to be said that the Tesla Model 3, due out later this year, will cost about the same as an e-Golf and have more than 200 miles of range. It’s doubtful many Model 3 reservation holders would give up their place in line for an E-Golf today. Volkswagen says it wants to be the world’s leading electric car manufacturer. It is going to have to find a way to squeeze several thousand dollars out of the price of its electric cars to meet that goal.

Source: Volkswagen press release