Volkswagen E-Golf

The e-Golf is one of Volkswagen’s all-electric cars currently on sale in international markets. Is it very different from a standard Golf?

- Aatish Mishra

VOLKSWAGEN IS making a huge push towards electric mobility, and has grand plans for the future with the upcoming MEB fully electric platform. However, their current portfolio in international markets does boast of a couple of fully electric cars and that charge is being led by the e-Golf. The Golf is the best-selling Volkswagen car worldwide, and it made sense for them to sell it with the option of a fully electric drivetrain. It is highly unlikely that the e-Golf will ever come to India, but it is interesting to see the first steps towards an inevitable electric future being taken by one of the world’s biggest car manufacturers.

The e-Golf is not built on a separate platform — it is still based on the MQB platform, the same as the regular 7th generation Golf and shared with cars like the Audi A4, VW Jetta and Skoda Octavia, but it has been post-engineered to hold batteries and an electric drivetrain. The engine and gearbox have been ripped out. The floor of the car is lined with batteries and an electric motor replaces the engine under the hood. When the e-Golf was launched in 2014, it had a claimed range of 180km, however the refreshed 2017 model we’re driving has a claimed range of 300km. Nevertheless, even VW is quite transparent that these figures were achieved in perfect test conditions and real world range hovers around 220km. A lot of it also comes down to the way you drive, but more on that in a bit.