Volkswagen e-motion EV
When Britain has done with subsidised battery-electric space-hoppers, eco-celebrity flash mobs and brainless bolides masquerading as electrified urban transport, the VW Golf will be left standing sentinel to our politicians' crass venality.
Next year they will spend up to £43 million of our money subsidising the wealthy at up to £5,000 a shot to buy a ragtag army of battery-powered scooters, golf carts and trikes.
Only Nissan will have a sensible car, the Leaf, on sale and that won't make any money for its maker, or save much, if any, for its users. The environment is unlikely to gain, either, because Britain generates the lion's share of its volts by burning fossil fuels.
That's not to say electricity isn't a key part of the next car generation, but forcing the electrification of the automobile with tokenist grants does nothing to make Britain a centre of battery-car technology. It's as fruitless as rain-dancing around the garden in the bid to alter the course of a cricket match.
Everything - the infrastructure, renewable generation, a viable supplier sector, healthy markets, recharging systems and public trust - has to grow together.
Cameron and Clegg, terrified of being dubbed anti-environmental, have bought off the eco lobby with these grants, mean in amounts and crafty in time restrictions. If you get an electric grant next year, you probably don't need one.
Volkswagen has deliberately avoided the bandwagon and this new battery-electric Golf, which will not hit the showrooms until the end of 2013, seems almost disdainful of gimmicks.
It is just the latest in a series of battery-electric Golf models from Wolfsburg. Unveiled in 1976, the first, experimental 25bhp Golf tested successfully for more than 12,500 miles.
In 1981 VW unveiled a series of CityStromer battery Golf models in conjunction with electricity supplier RWE. Powered by lead-acid batteries, performance and range were gradually increased and VW sold about 100 of them. More recently, we have seen the plug-in hybrid Golf Twin-Drive, which goes trial in Berlin this year.
Parked outside the VW Autostadt museum complex, the battery Golf is spectacularly understated. Apart from body stickers, only the absence of an exhaust pipe gives the game away.
Passenger space is completely unchanged and only the slightly raised boot floor betrays the presence of a high-tech 26.4kWh lithium-ion battery and attendant wiring.
The extra weight is partly compensated by the loss of a fuel tank and piston engine driveline: the battery Golf weighs just 452lb more than its diesel counterpart with twin-clutch transmission.
The dashboard looks entirely conventional until you read the measurement units of kilowatts. VW has cleverly used analogue dials to indicate electricity consumption, remaining range and battery condition, although digital displays are available with the usual pull down facia menus.
A single gearlever sprouts from the centre console and the systems are activated with a conventional key start. More braking energy regeneration can be summoned via a "B" setting on the gearlever quadrant or by pulling paddles behind the steering wheel,
Pull away with three adults on board and the Golf is brisk and strong up to about 50mph, where the torque peak starts to tail off. Even so, it will happily cruise at 75mph and pulls gamely up to 90-100mph. It is eerily silent and refined, and much better than rivals that are nearer production.
It's worth recalling here that the original Golf GTI had just one fewer bhp than this battery car and - even though it weighed about half as much - only mustered a top speed of 112mph.
Throw the electric Golf around and body roll is well controlled, while the electrically assisted steering is well weighted and direct. The ride is slightly abrupt on Michelin eco tyres, but the suspension has yet to be fully optimised.
Production cars will come equipped with a three-stage drive system comprising Comfort (the full 85kW), Normal (power restricted to 65kW) and Range+ (a further reduction to 50kW). It seems just about OK, especially when you're desperately conserving power to get to your destination.
Less successful is the paddle-shift motor braking system, which seems to affect the accelerator mapping so that you have to give it a boot full of kilowatts to maintain speed. We weren't sure about the absence of an automatic "creep" in the single-speed transmission, either.
Such systems use power, but if you don't left-foot brake, the Golf will roll back on hills unless you transfer from brake to throttle with speed and accuracy (or else use the parking brake).
Promising, then? It is probably the best electric car we've driven, but there's so much else for Britain to sort out before the battery Golf can be a viable means of transport for a select few.
Perhaps the last and refreshingly frank words should come from the man charged with making a success of the project, VW Group chairman Martin Winterkorn.
"To be a resounding success," he says, "the electric car must be affordable for a wide range of people and must be uncompromisingly practical in everyday use.
"Only then - at high production volumes and if possible on all continents − can one truly speak of the beginning of the era of the electric automobile and of measurably positive environmental effects."
As my Nan used to say, stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
The facts
TESTED VW Golf blue-e-motion battery-electric five-door hatchback. With 694lb, 26.4kWh, 180-cell water/air-cooled lithium-ion battery in boot, under rear seats and in centre tunnel. 176lb AC synchronous (brush-less) electric motor driving the front wheels. Operating voltage 324 volts
PRICE/ON SALE No prices yet. On sale end of 2013 with a test fleet in deployment between then and now.
POWER/TORQUE Motor 85kW (113hp) peak, 50kW (68hp) continuous, 199lb ft of torque
TOP SPEED Electronically limited to 93mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 11.8sec
RANGE 87 miles in German-only NEDC Combined cycle
RECHARGE TIME Six hours for a full charge with 240v 15amp domestic supply, half hour for 85 per cent charge with three-phase 50kW quick charger
CO2 EMISSIONS None at tailpipe
ON THE STEREO Sailing by Rod Stewart
VERDICT Spectacularly useable battery electric car, with honest range that will suit the majority of commuters. Some details need more work and there are bigger issues about renewable electricity generation, but the Golf's gone electric and how.
TELEGRAPH VERDICT Four out of five
Source: Telegraph
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