THE e-Golf reminds me of an exciting relationship. From the outset, this car is a looker.
If you haven’t driven electric, then you haven’t experienced the pleasure of hitting the accelerator at the traffic lights. The instant take-off at the roundabouts, the feeling of being stuck to the road and the smoothness of the drive is unrivalled by petrol or diesel.
I popped into Anthony Mannion in VW Laharts last Thursday where he introduced me to a 192 e-Golf, executive model, with some very nice specs. The 17-inch alloys and striking LED lights make it stand out. It’s a Golf, I hear you say, yet it’s stylish and futuristic. Lynda Mooney who produces KCLR Live remarked when I drove her back from an outside broadcast that she associates the Golf with being a “teacher’s car” before revealing there is “nothing teacher-y” about this car. While it stands out as a special Golf, there is something else I like here. Some electric owners get tetchy when I remark that a lot of other EVs don’t look like “normal” cars. They are gawky or awkward looking. This is the closest thing to a familiar car as far as electric cars go, and, in my opinion, that’s a plus.
The full leather interior, heated front seats for those winter mornings and rear-view camera to make parking easier are just some of the features that come with the executive edition. Keyless access is something that takes a little getting used to but, in fairness, there are features to make it fool-proof.
Only once, I pressed the “on” button and couldn’t figure out why the car wouldn’t start. Initially I wondered if the key was out of range as it was inside my handbag but later thought the car would only start in park mode when your foot is on the brake. I still haven’t got to the bottom of that one but after I took the key out of the bag and did the old “off” and back “on” trick (it works for all my other tech issues), it started without a hitch.
Some of the features on the dash are lost on me as I’m a straightforward creature when it comes to extra gadgets but the basics are very good. The in-built Bluetooth connected without a hitch and offered good sound, the map in navigation mode is a handy addition. One feature that I missed from the display was the percentage on the battery. Seems like a small thing but as with your iPhone, the quickest way to know how much battery you have left is to look at the percentage. Instead, the e-Golf shows you the guestimate of kilometres left in your battery.
Reviews of electric cars are usually dominated by complaints of an inadequate charging network. With a 200km range in this car, I wouldn’t buy this particular model unless I could charge from home. I know some people rely on public chargers as they rent their home, or aren’t in a position to install a charge point but if I was in that bracket and considering an EV, I would be tempted to look at other models with a longer range. Saying that, this car would perfectly suit somebody with a daily commute similar to mine from Carlow to Kilkenny. However, I’m wondering how I’d cope with the odd trip to Dublin thrown in… with a 200km range and the winter approaching (the range gets shorter in the cold), I reckon I’d be suffering from the dreaded range anxiety. Before you mention it, I’m not patient enough to wait around regularly for a public charge point.
I tried out the public charger at Four Lakes Retail Park next to Supermac’s on the Dublin Road in Carlow to see how much charge I’d get in a short space of time. I got the car charged to about 170km of its 200km range within 25 minutes or so using the CCS quick charging system.
Neighbours, work colleagues, family members and random strangers all admired the e-Golf while I was on my travels over the last few days. There is a common thread of comments and questions. 1. Everybody thinks it is eerily quiet (that takes some getting used to as I feel you need to be more aware of pedestrians when they are less likely to hear you) 2. They all want to know how much the car costs and what the grants are like.
This standard e-Golf retails at VW Laharts from around €35,000 after the grants are taken off. Current grants are guaranteed for any electric vehicles bought and registered in 2019 but grants for 2020 are not being allocated at this time according to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
Back to my initial point about the e-Golf. I really enjoyed the ride but I’m not ready to commit long-term until I see what the Budget brings… or maybe VW will tempt me with a bigger battery in the future.
*Tune into KCLR Live on Monday from 11am to meet our panel of EV owners as we compare the e-Golf to other electric cars. We’ll be meeting a man who recently bought a Hyundai Kona, a woman who drives a Nissan Leaf and a Graiguenamanagh man who owns an e-Golf and a Tesla. Anthony Mannion from Laharts will also be answering our listeners’ questions.
