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Once again, VW pulls up in the rear of the column of BEV intro's.

If the E-golf 8 was coming out this year, both Nissan and Tesla might have some real competition...

Volkswagen e-Golf 8 to get a 48 kWh battery

... in 2019.

Auto Bild reports that the next generation Volkswagen Golf 8 in its electric variant will get a 48 kWh battery, enough for 420 km (NEDC) range. If this proves to be true, it means that Volkswagen will finally start to use battery cells designed for BEVs in their full electric cars...

This next generation Volkswagen e-Golf 8 is expected to be the last electrified effort from Volkswagen before moving to an entirely new platform, the Modular Electrification Toolkit (MEB), which is showcased with the I.D. concept. This concept electric car has been advertised with a 600 km (NEDC) range, which would translate to a more realistic 400 km (249 miles) range...
http://pushevs.com/2017/06/05/volkswagen-e-golf-8-get-48-kwh-battery/
 
edatoakrun said:
Once again, VW pulls up in the rear of the column of BEV intro's.

If the E-golf 8 was coming out this year, both Nissan and Tesla might have some real competition...

Volkswagen e-Golf 8 to get a 48 kWh battery

... in 2019.

Auto Bild reports that the next generation Volkswagen Golf 8 in its electric variant will get a 48 kWh battery, enough for 420 km (NEDC) range. If this proves to be true, it means that Volkswagen will finally start to use battery cells designed for BEVs in their full electric cars...

This next generation Volkswagen e-Golf 8 is expected to be the last electrified effort from Volkswagen before moving to an entirely new platform, the Modular Electrification Toolkit (MEB), which is showcased with the I.D. concept. This concept electric car has been advertised with a 600 km (NEDC) range, which would translate to a more realistic 400 km (249 miles) range...
http://pushevs.com/2017/06/05/volkswagen-e-golf-8-get-48-kwh-battery/

If it still drives like a Golf and has a starting MSRP under $30k like the current eGolf, then VW will find a market for it.
 
If it still drives like a Golf and has a starting MSRP under $30k like the current eGolf, then VW will find a market for it.

And if those idiots finally give it a heated steering wheel, it will sell well in the 75% of the country that has real Winters.
 
LeftieBiker said:
If it still drives like a Golf and has a starting MSRP under $30k like the current eGolf, then VW will find a market for it.

And if those idiots finally give it a heated steering wheel, it will sell well in the 75% of the country that has real Winters.

Of all of the cars I've owned, exactly one has had a heated steering wheel. And I've almost always lived with a real winter (try visiting Potsdam, NY during February - I spent 4 winters living there!). It is a luxury that I appreciate, but far from a deal-breaker. I know that you find it a necessity, but you must recognize that your condition puts you in the minority. Most people with healthy circulation are perfectly fine with wearing gloves, and won't let that deter them from buying a car they otherwise like.
 
While maybe not a total deal breaker, a heated steering wheel is more of a plus than say a CD player or XM, also more important than a 4th button on my remote for the charge port, heck I can think of a lot of things I'd trade for the steering wheel to be heated. The Leaf is the first vehicle that I've owned with such a luxury, heck it's my wife's favorite feature on my Leaf. She's she said she could think of a lot of things to trade on her Prius for my heated steering wheel :cool:

I imagine at one point a heated steering wheel will be as common as heated seats, which again I'd probably trade for a heated steering wheel. It's quite rare when I use my heated seats(my wife is a different story) but my heated steering wheel basically never gets turned off from October to March.
 
Alright, I see in our vast sample set, we have 67% of people who weigh a heated steering heavily when choosing their next car. My presumption was that there is a large percentage of people would buy a car without one, without thinking twice. Clearly none of us know for sure what the masses would choose, so I'll just concede that it's a strong selling point to some.

I still think they'd find a market for a 2019 eGolf with a 48kWh battery, slightly larger motor, and little to nothing else changed, all for under $30k. Keep in mind that typical US eGolf sales are on the order of 300-400 per month. Probably just enough to meet their CARB quota. I don't expect VW to break into real volume until the ID-based EVs arrive sometime around 2020.
 
EV drivers are not just a similar subset of ICE drivers. Why is the heated steering wheel so important, even to those without poor circulation? I believe that it's because once you are driving a car with virtually instant heat, and heated seats, having a frigid steering wheel in your hands stops being a typical driving factor and suddenly stands out like a sore - nay, frozen! - thumb. I also went decades without one, but once I experienced the comfort of having it, it did indeed become a deal breaker. I'm not alone. VW is not currently in a position to tell drivers, in effect, "You'll accept vhat ve offer, and be happy with it!" They'd better be trying to please environmentally-oriented drivers, who are starting to prefer hybrids and EVs.
 
LeftieBiker said:
And if those idiots finally give it a heated steering wheel, it will sell well in the 75% of the country that has real Winters.

Doesn't seem to bother the Europeans who have "real winter" as well.
 
jjeff said:
I imagine at one point a heated steering wheel will be as common as heated seats, which again I'd probably trade for a heated steering wheel. It's quite rare when I use my heated seats(my wife is a different story) but my heated steering wheel basically never gets turned off from October to March.

And one day, Nissan will invent a steering wheel heater that maintains a consistent, pleasant level of warmth rather than wildly fluctuating between ice cold and Hades.

Personally I like heated seats. I use them even in summer to soothe my back.
 
edatoakrun said:
Once again, VW pulls up in the rear of the column of BEV intro's.

In the US, VW is a niche product. IMHO their biggest mistake of the last decade is trying to chase the Japanese with sales, and the resulting cuts to quality (Mk VI Jetta, NMS Passat to a lesser degree) have actually done more to piss off loyalists than attract new buyers.

VW needs to do again what was best at doing, and that is offer niche products to a loyal customer base, even if in some ways it's inferior to the competition. It works for Subaru.
 
RonDawg said:
LeftieBiker said:
And if those idiots finally give it a heated steering wheel, it will sell well in the 75% of the country that has real Winters.

Doesn't seem to bother the Europeans who have "real winter" as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Leaf the best selling EV in Europe? If so...
 
eGolf didn't come out until 2015 so the Leaf had a 4 year head start. However the Golf range has long been one of Europe's best selling cars, and was Europe's top-selling model in 2016. In 2016 VW was Europe's top selling brand; no Japanese brand was even in the top 10.

Clearly for the Europeans it's not all about steering wheel heaters. A bit of Googling shows the base Leaf to be about €1,000 cheaper than the eGolf in Germany, with a further €2500 or so discount commonplace (unsure if eGolf enjoys same level of discounting in Europe -- probably not given the Golf itself is very popular).

EDIT: CleanTechnica reported that during the first two months of 2015 the eGolf was outselling the Leaf in "West Europe": https://cleantechnica.com/2015/04/03/volkswagen-e-golf-surpasses-nissan-leaf-top-selling-ev-west-europe-januaryfebruary/
 
Since I'm mainly talking about the EV subset of drivers, those figures aren't extremely relevant. Which car sold more per year after the eGolf came out, the eGolf or the Leaf?
 
LeftieBiker said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Leaf the best selling EV in Europe? If so...
https://evobsession.com/best-selling-electric-car-europe-renault-zoe-2016-electric-car-sales/ claims the Renault Zoe is.
 
You're implying that steering wheel heaters are the reason the Leaf outsold the eGolf. I'm saying that's likely not the reason as the ICEV versions sell just fine wihout them.

BTW the top selling electric car in Europe in 2016 was the Renault Zoe which as best as I can tell does NOT have a heated steering wheel either.

EDIT: CleanTechnica reported that the eGolf did outsell the Leaf during January and February 2015, right in the middle of winter: https://cleantechnica.com/2015/04/03/volkswagen-e-golf-surpasses-nissan-leaf-top-selling-ev-west-europe-januaryfebruary/
 
cwerdna said:
LeftieBiker said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Leaf the best selling EV in Europe? If so...
https://evobsession.com/best-selling-electric-car-europe-renault-zoe-2016-electric-car-sales/ claims the Renault Zoe is.

As does CleanTechnica: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/03/europes-best-selling-electric-car-renault-zoe/
 
The Leaf appears to vastly outsell the eGolf in general, from what I can see. Nope, it isn't solely because of the heated wheel, but I suspect that it's a significant factor.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The Leaf appears to vastly outsell the eGolf in general, from what I can see. Nope, it isn't solely because of the heated wheel, but I suspect that it's a significant factor.

Again eGolf outsold Leaf during the winter of 2015. So I doubt it's the heated wheel issue. Price discounting is more likely as Leaf is already 1000 euros cheaper. (Top-seller Zoe is also much cheaper than eGolf or Leaf but it's also one size class down).
 
Why doesn't VW electrify this thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8QwtxQVHfw

VW would have the Electro-wagon market category all to itself.

Probably no more, and maybe even less drag than the shorty Golf, meaning a huge increase in utility with minimal decrease in efficiency.

And while you're at it, offer a built-in 120 V inverter, and Westy -manufactured tent vestibule options, for climate-controlled, appliance equipped (microwave some snacks, to go with the cold beer in the fridge...) camping.
 
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