Official VW e-Golf thread - $29,815

[RonDawg]

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.

[LeftieBiker]

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...

[RonDawg]

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/vo ... yfebruary/

[LeftieBiker]

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?

[cwerdna]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Leaf the best selling EV in Europe? If so...

https://evobsession.com/best-selling-el ... car-sales/ claims the Renault Zoe is.

[RonDawg]

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/vo ... yfebruary/

[RonDawg]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Leaf the best selling EV in Europe? If so...

https://evobsession.com/best-selling-el ... car-sales/ claims the Renault Zoe is.

As does CleanTechnica: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/03/eu ... nault-zoe/

[LeftieBiker]

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.

[RonDawg]

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).

[edatoakrun]

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.