Official VW e-Golf thread - $29,815

[GRA]

Washington is finally starting to get with the program - Plugshare is now showing 3 CCS in state, although the one at the Kia dealer in Kirkland seems to be in a bit of limbo currently re permits, or at least that's what the dealership personnel are saying.

 

[GRA]

Via GCR:

Volkswagen e-Golf Climate Control: How Much Does A/C Impact Range?

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1099693_volkswagen-e-golf-climate-control-how-much-does-a-c-impact-range

Answer (in Portland, OR, which has been setting temp records this year), about 15% in normal A/C, maybe 20% in Max A/C.

 

[RonDawg]

Via GCR:

Volkswagen e-Golf Climate Control: How Much Does A/C Impact Range?

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1099693_volkswagen-e-golf-climate-control-how-much-does-a-c-impact-range

Answer (in Portland, OR, which has been setting temp records this year), about 15% in normal A/C, maybe 20% in Max A/C.

I live in the foothills of Los Angeles, and even with our recent extended heatwaves (and a black leatherette interior) my consumption has never dropped below 4.4 miles/kWH, and I often get 5 miles/kWH in mixed city and freeway driving.

I'm curious what the author is doing to get sub-4 miles/kWH economy.

 

[Publius]

Now that I've had my e-Golf SEL for a couple weeks I'll add my 2 cents on the car compared to my 2012 Nissan LEAF that I turned in.

Quirks with the e-Golf that give the LEAF the edge:
1) All delayed charging it programmed through the app, and for some reason delayed charging doesn't work with my Leviton 160 charge station. It works with the Level 1 EVSE provided with the car.
2) The EVSE provided with the car is not rated for outdoor use in rain or snow. What were they thinking?
3) The charge handle locks every time you attach it to the car and requires that you unlock the doors with the key fob or on the door to unlock it. It only unlocks for 30 seconds. Get to if fast.
4) I cannot figure out how to add charge stations to the nav system, and it doesn't show all charge stations, even if you've plugged into it.
5) Climate control automatically turns on every time you start the car after it has sat for 30 minutes. Less than 30 minutes it will remember your previous setting. It never remembers seat heater settings after powering down.

Things I like more about the e-Golf than the Leaf:
1) The interior feels much nicer.
2) Feels much quicker and handles better. I'm not sure of the numbers, but I the e-Golf is more fun to drive.
3) I'm getting better economy than I did with my LEAF. I was regularly getting over 5 miles/kWh of mixed driving without doing anything special before the weather turned colder and I started using the heater.
4) I like the control I have over regen settings (B mode and 3 levels of regen using the shifter, with the option to coast in D).
5) The app has been more reliable for me than the LEAF app. It does more, too. Although, some of the extra features (unlocking doors, driving data, and finding location) will cease to be free after a few months.
6) The battery degredarion warranty. 70% 8 years 100,000.
7) 7.2 kWh charger.

Overall, I've been more impressed with the e-Golf than the LEAF. The LEAF felt like a nice economy car that cost a lot because it's electric. The e-Golf feels like a nice car that is electric. I've been impressed, quirks aside.

 

[LeftieBiker]

No Heat pump in the Golf, right? How much does the heater suck, so to speak?

 

[Publius]

The e-Golf SEL has a heat pump. My average economy with ambient temps in the 40s and with the heat set to 72 has dipped less than 1 mile/kWh to just over 4/kWh on average. The worst I've seen has been around 3.5 miles/kWh. The temperature hasn't dipped below 30 yet, so I'm curious to see how I do in true upstate NY winter conditions. One thing I have noticed, though, is that the heat starts pumping out warm air immediately after start up, which certainly was not the case with my LEAF. I didn't have a heat pump on my that.

 

[LeftieBiker]

It sounds just like the heat pump in mine. Look for a big increase in consumption as the temp falls below the high twenties, and a bigger increase below 24F or so. When you hit the mid teens, it will seem about the same as a resistance-only system.

 

[RonDawg]

No Heat pump in the Golf, right?

As already mentioned, the eGolf SEL has a heat pump, but the cheaper versions (LE for 2015, SE for 2016) use a resistive-style heater.

 

[RonDawg]

1) All delayed charging it programmed through the app, and for some reason delayed charging doesn't work with my Leviton 160 charge station. It works with the Level 1 EVSE provided with the car.

That's a well known quirk with different L2 EVSE's and so far VW has not been able to come up with a fix.

2) The EVSE provided with the car is not rated for outdoor use in rain or snow. What were they thinking?

I think that's their way to get out of a warranty claim. The EVSE, despite the "Delphi" name, is actually a Clipper Creek unit. CC provides the parts to Delphi who assemble it.

3) The charge handle locks every time you attach it to the car and requires that you unlock the doors with the key fob or on the door to unlock it. It only unlocks for 30 seconds. Get to if fast.

Another oft-complained about quirk.

5) Climate control automatically turns on every time you start the car after it has sat for 30 minutes. Less than 30 minutes it will remember your previous setting. It never remembers seat heater settings after powering down.

Yup, and apparently someone at VW thought 72 F should be the default setting.

5) The app has been more reliable for me than the LEAF app. It does more, too. Although, some of the extra features (unlocking doors, driving data, and finding location) will cease to be free after a few months.

You're an exception. The app seems to get a lot of complaints about its reliability. I met one eGolf owner who said he discovered his app was controlling someone else's car

For that reason I have yet to set it up even though I've had my eGolf for over 3 months.

6) The battery degredarion warranty. 70% 8 years 100,000.

Unfortunately VW, despite earlier promises to the contrary, went the Leaf route and omitted the battery TMS. Without the tools for owners to measure battery capacity like we do for the Leaf, and with a lack of a battery degradation meter, you'll have to rely on monitoring your range closely to guesstimate your capacity loss.

Overall, I've been more impressed with the e-Golf than the LEAF. The LEAF felt like a nice economy car that cost a lot because it's electric. The e-Golf feels like a nice car that is electric. I've been impressed, quirks aside.

[

Agreed. What's impressive is that VW has mostly kept the driving dynamics of the petroleum-powered versions, and from what I can tell there has been little compromise in making it electric. It helps that the car was designed from the beginning to accept different power plants.

 

[Publius]

What can I say, the app didn't work at all for the first day (never connected to the car and the location was listed a somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean), but it has worked every time since finding the car. My LEAF app frequently failed to update and took longer to update when it did.

 

[LeftieBiker]

It looks like VW has, like Nissan with the Leaf, decided to keep residuals low on eGolf leases, thus making the monthly payment high. I just got an offer for a 2015 SEL, and with $5k down ($2k of it for taxes and fees) I'd still be paying $340-$343 a month, with a $12k residual. With just the taxes and fees paid up front, it's over $400.

 

[RonDawg]

It looks like VW has, like Nissan with the Leaf, decided to keep residuals low on eGolf leases, thus making the monthly payment high. I just got an offer for a 2015 SEL, and with $5k down ($2k of it for taxes and fees) I'd still be paying $340-$343 a month, with a $12k residual. With just the taxes and fees paid up front, it's over $400.

The residual on my eGolf is low as well (around $12k IIRC) but the reason my lease payments are much lower (with a down payment half as large) than was quoted for you is that VW at the time was slashing around $6k off MSRP before any other discounts. It looks like in your case they're eliminating this subsidy, though for a leftover 2015 they should have increased it instead just to get it off their lot.

It was also nice that VW gave me this credit right off MSRP, and not included it as part of the Capitalized Cost Reduction (like with the $7500 Federal tax credit), so I didn't have to pay CA sales tax on it. That saved me $540.

 

[LeftieBiker]

There was a $1k credit for being a 1st time VW buyer, but yes, the car is $36k.

 

[LeftieBiker]

VW salespeople must have a lot more free time lately. Despite my saying I couldn't afford the above lease, the sales guy I've been dealing with emailed me again today. It seems there are more (end of year, I assume) sales incentives, and they are now offering me a taxes and fees-only down lease for $282 a month. The bad news is it's a 48 month lease. I may well decide to test drive the car this week, though. There are numerous reports of the actual range being closer to 100 miles than to the rated 83, so who knows - it might be a higher range car for me. Amusingly, I think the deal-breaker is going to be the lack of a heated steering wheel. Unless it has one that isn't listed...? This is, once again, the SEL model.

 

[RonDawg]

I personally find that the eGolf goes further per "electron" than the Leaf did. It's not hard for me to achieve 5 miles/kWH in the eGolf...that's practically impossible for me in the Leaf given my local driving conditions.

Mine does not have a heated steering wheel, and unless VW changed specs for 2016 I don't think those have them either. Then again, a nice thin but warm pair of gloves is far more helpful than a heated steering wheel that oscillates from almost-too-hot-to-touch to freezing cold.

 

[cwerdna]

Interestingly (?), the e-Golf is starting to become a pretty popular car at my work. Even though the e-Golf hasn't been out long, in our semi-voluntary EV/PHEV car list @ work (to facilitate plug sharing and to contact people if we have trouble plugging in their cars), e-Golfs already far outnumber the Spark EV and FFE. We never got many of the last 2.

Leaf is still by the far the most popular plug-in @ my work. I've seen at least 1 '16 Volt @ work already.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Then again, a nice thin but warm pair of gloves is far more helpful than a heated steering wheel that oscillates from almost-too-hot-to-touch to freezing cold.

Not if the circulation in your hands is minimal. I manually switch the wheel heater on and off as I drive, but I couldn't do without it unless I wore my lithium battery-heated gloves to drive. I don't think I want to pay $282 a month for cold hands or constant battery charging. What a terrible oversight for a German car company.

 

[GRA]

Then again, a nice thin but warm pair of gloves is far more helpful than a heated steering wheel that oscillates from almost-too-hot-to-touch to freezing cold.

Not if the circulation in your hands is minimal.

Just a suggestion: have you tried wearing a warm cap? Keep your head, neck and torso warm, and there'll be more blood for your extremities. I used to drive my Datsun 2000 roadster with just a tonneau cover on fairly raw days, bundled up in a wool sweater, windbreaker and leather driving gloves, but with a watch cap. With the heat on under the tonneau I was fine, and the circulation in my hands and feet is nothing to write home about.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Then again, a nice thin but warm pair of gloves is far more helpful than a heated steering wheel that oscillates from almost-too-hot-to-touch to freezing cold.

Not if the circulation in your hands is minimal.

Just a suggestion: have you tried wearing a warm cap? Keep your head, neck and torso warm, and there'll be more blood for your extremities. I used to drive my Datsun 2000 roadster with just a tonneau cover on fairly raw days, bundled up in a wool sweater, windbreaker and leather driving gloves, but with a watch cap. With the heat on under the tonneau I was fine, and the circulation in my hands and feet is nothing to write home about.

I have advanced peripheral artery disease as well as cardio-vascular disease. I wear a balaclava and hood while driving in Winter, or just a hood in mild temps. I do not dress lightly and then complain about cold hands and feet. As it is my left foot freezes while driving, because there is no heat blowing directly on it. And no, I don't wear sandals or sneakers, and I do wear warm socks.

 

[srl99]

Then again, a nice thin but warm pair of gloves is far more helpful than a heated steering wheel that oscillates from almost-too-hot-to-touch to freezing cold.

Not if the circulation in your hands is minimal.

Just a suggestion: have you tried wearing a warm cap? Keep your head, neck and torso warm, and there'll be more blood for your extremities. I used to drive my Datsun 2000 roadster with just a tonneau cover on fairly raw days, bundled up in a wool sweater, windbreaker and leather driving gloves, but with a watch cap. With the heat on under the tonneau I was fine, and the circulation in my hands and feet is nothing to write home about.

And you looked mahhvelous. I admire the explorers who drive their convertibles around in cold weather with the top down.