New 2018 e-golf! Yes or No!

Yes or No


  • Total voters
    14

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
So recently we have been looking at EV's to replace our daily work vehicle. We looked at the BMW, Kia, Chevy, Nissan and VW EV's.
We drive about 100 kms per day and our Honda Element is burning lots of gas and getting a bit old and rough. We looked at a smaller vehicle that could handle some tool bags and still have some comfort and technology.
The Bolt seems to have great range but that really isn't too important as we can charge the car at work sites and at home. Finishing seems a bit on the cheap side.
The Nissan is a non-starter.
The BMW has a lot of tech and seems well designed but a little light on the construction. But has a range extender incase you don't charge it or run out of charge.
The Kia is a bit of a toy for the money.
We went to look at an e-golf but nobody has any to look at. Since we have other VW's, we feel at bit more comfortable with the design and interior finishing. After sitting with the VW dealer, we decided to put a refundable deposit on a Loaded e-golf. We have about 5 months before the car gets here (according to the dealer) so we have this time to review the other cars and see if we find something that really fits.
Range of the e-golf is about 200 kms per charge which seems to fit well. We are not worried about longer trips because we have 2 gassers and 1 TDI (our tow vehicle) which work very well.
I wanted to reach out and see if there are any reviews or feedback on this car.
One thing that we don't have to worry about is an "emissions scandal" :) or do we?
 

GoFaster

Moderator at Large
Joined
Jun 16, 1999
Location
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
A friend of mine went through this about 10 months ago and ended up with a Kia Soul EV.

By "The Nissan is a non-starter" do you mean the original Leaf or the new one - and why? The original Leaf looked like a turd; the new one is much better looking and has longer range.

The Golf seems expensive for what you get ... the range is still low.

LEASE, don't buy. Resale value on any of the low-range EVs is poor. They will all be obsolete in a couple of years.
 

bhtooefr

TDIClub Enthusiast, ToofTek Inventor
Joined
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Location
Newark, OH
TDI
None
Also note that batteries seem to only be getting WORSE on newer generations of the LEAF, as far as degradation. I'd avoid it.
 

compu_85

Gadget Guy
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Location
La Conner, WA
TDI
... None :S
I wouldn't consider buying a new EV with a non cooled battery - that rules out the Leaf and eGolf.

That's a big part of why we bought a Fiat 500e and Cadillac ELR: proper battery thermal management.

-J
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
What's your motivation for buying an EV? I can't imagine any new EV is going to have a lower total ownership cost than your Element. I've thought about how a Bolt would work well for me for about 80% of my driving, but it's much more economical to continue to drive my TDIs. They're paid for, pretty much done depreciating, and insurance and tax costs are very low. The occasional major repair isn't significant when compared to the cost of a new vehicle of any type.

If you want something new that is interesting and fun, have at it. But I seriously doubt you'll save any money.
 

car54

theGAME
Joined
Dec 5, 2000
Location
Woodbridge VA
TDI
2002 Jetta
I charge for free at work, an EV will pay for itsself in fuel alone in less than 8 years, not to mention how much fun it is to drive. If you think a TDI has torque, get an EV.

I would not consider an egolf. fiat 500e, volt, bolt, smart ED, Kia, lots of good EVs with proper battery management.

I bought a 2018 chevy volt. If I could go back, I would have gone with the Bolt. I'd much rather have a pure EV with more range than the gasoline range extender. 200 miles would basically get me 95% of my round trips without charging, and DC fast charging would easily handle the remaining 5%.

I will most likely sell the volt and buy a Hyundai Kona EV next year.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I charge for free at work, an EV will pay for itsself in fuel alone in less than 8 years.
I'd be interested in the math on that statement. Seems that it might be challenging, since the number of miles you can go on pure EV is limited, as are the places that offer free charging.
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
What's your motivation for buying an EV? I can't imagine any new EV is going to have a lower total ownership cost than your Element. I've thought about how a Bolt would work well for me for about 80% of my driving, but it's much more economical to continue to drive my TDIs. They're paid for, pretty much done depreciating, and insurance and tax costs are very low. The occasional major repair isn't significant when compared to the cost of a new vehicle of any type.

If you want something new that is interesting and fun, have at it. But I seriously doubt you'll save any money.
We have considered the options and this seems like a good direction to get an EV as our work vehicle. With our insane gas prices in BC we will see $2.00 per litre soon! Also, we seem to have a lot on electricity in this area with all the dams.

We did some numbers and we are currently spending about $500 to $600 per month on gas for the Honda and it is getting worse combined with a bunch of maintenance needed as the miles are getting up there.

Our Beetle is used as a tow vehicle when we go away but not too much use otherwise as we are working so much. We have a GTI and a Mini as well but they are recreational vehicles so they don't see the usage for work.

It is easy to justify the EV as a replacement for the Honda and we have plenty of charging stations to make the range really easy to manage.

We are just not too sure which is the right vehicle so we will venture out and do some road tests soon. We can try the BMW and Leaf as well as the Bolt to see if we can get an better idea on cargo space and good seats!

I and not too sure if we have Cadillac EV's up here but will look.

Thanks for the feedback.
 

2.2TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Location
TDI
⠀⠀
We have considered the options and this seems like a good direction to get an EV as our work vehicle. With our insane gas prices in BC we will see $2.00 per litre soon! Also, we seem to have a lot on electricity in this area with all the dams.
We did some numbers and we are currently spending about $500 to $600 per month on gas for the Honda and it is getting worse combined with a bunch of maintenance needed as the miles are getting up there.
Our Beetle is used as a tow vehicle when we go away but not too much use otherwise as we are working so much. We have a GTI and a Mini as well but they are recreational vehicles so they don't see the usage for work.
It is easy to justify the EV as a replacement for the Honda and we have plenty of charging stations to make the range really easy to manage.
We are just not too sure which is the right vehicle so we will venture out and do some road tests soon. We can try the BMW and Leaf as well as the Bolt to see if we can get an better idea on cargo space and good seats!
I and not too sure if we have Cadillac EV's up here but will look.
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm going play devils advocate here and ask you why you are looking for a 5th car when you already have 4 cars?

I don't understand why you are using your beetle just as a tow car and a mini and gti as "recreational cars"(if you had a V8 Audi S4 for example then I can understand it being a weekend car)... I'm also not sure what exactly you mean by work car, but if by work you mean it's a commuting car, then seems to me, especially given your signature, that the beetle seems like the perfect car and your fuel costs won't be anywhere near the elements (but you already know this). I'm not sure how spending money on a new EV makes any financial sense given how many cars you have... That's just my 2 cents
 

1854sailor

Resident Curmudgeon
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Location
Westerly, RI
TDI
2015 Golf SE SportWagen, 2015 Golf SE Hatch Back.
This is spot on! And did you notice that he removed the rest of the vehicles from his sig...?

I'm going play devils advocate here and ask you why you are looking for a 5th car when you already have 4 cars?

I don't understand why you are using your beetle just as a tow car and a mini and gti as "recreational cars"(if you had a V8 Audi S4 for example then I can understand it being a weekend car)... I'm also not sure what exactly you mean by work car, but if by work you mean it's a commuting car, then seems to me, especially given your signature, that the beetle seems like the perfect car and your fuel costs won't be anywhere near the elements (but you already know this). I'm not sure how spending money on a new EV makes any financial sense given how many cars you have... That's just my 2 cents
 

UFO

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Location
A mile high
TDI
2001 Beetle
I am considering replacing my diesel with an electric. I drive less than 40 miles any given day, and I have a truck if I need to haul stuff. My commute is short enough now that my diesel doesn't even warm up on cold days.

If you get free charging at work, I say go for the electric.

Even though this forum is a VW site, don't expect to get much support for a non-diesel option. ;)
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
I'm going play devils advocate here and ask you why you are looking for a 5th car when you already have 4 cars?

I don't understand why you are using your beetle just as a tow car and a mini and gti as "recreational cars"(if you had a V8 Audi S4 for example then I can understand it being a weekend car)... I'm also not sure what exactly you mean by work car, but if by work you mean it's a commuting car, then seems to me, especially given your signature, that the beetle seems like the perfect car and your fuel costs won't be anywhere near the elements (but you already know this). I'm not sure how spending money on a new EV makes any financial sense given how many cars you have... That's just my 2 cents
It would seem that we have a bunch of cars kicking around and this would only add to the driveway clutter.

The goal is to replace the Honda. This has been our company truck for the last 4 years. We have a small business and the business owns the Honda. The Honda is getting tired as it has been well used. I can spend a bunch of money to fix it up however, the EV discussion has been on the table for over a year.

Our business would retire the Honda and get another vehicle to use in its place.
The other cars are our personal cars which we use for shopping and longer trips etc... The GTI is basically our son's car and the Mini is my wife's car.

I thought about the Beetle to use for work but I don't want to subject it to bumper to bumper driving in our city which has some of the worst drivers around. It is almost 20 years old and doesn't hold much of our tools or equipment. I guess if I put a trailer behind it but really only use it to pull our trailer and transport our kayaks. On paper (with our provincial insurance provider), the car is probably worth a couple of thousand, but we have a huge investment in it with all the work done, this why we want to limit the usage locally.

In Vancouver gas is $1.61/litre which works out to $6.12 CDN/per US gallon.
It is expected to go up to $2.00/litre. We get about 350 km per fill up with the Honda and that costs $80 right now. We are spending about $600/month on fuel and looking at that going up to $700/month. A Ford F150 or similar will run us about $50,000 and burn even more fuel. We don't seem to have any compact work vans of interest in our car automobile market. No small diesels available either. We could get a 2015 Fixed TDI for more than what they cost new but they are very limited.

That is why I asked for opinions to see what comes back about EV cars.

Hope this makes more sense.
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
This is spot on! And did you notice that he removed the rest of the vehicles from his sig...?
Hey Sailor, not to sure what this refers to? Are you talking about my signature?

I haven't listed any other cars as they really aren't applicable to this forum. Also, I have used up all the characters so I can't even post any more details about the Beetle.

I knew it was a stretch to even mention a battery powered car on TDIClub but I thought what the hey! Maybe there are others out there with EV's that wish to share.

Maybe a diesel/battery hybrid for future consideration.
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
A friend of mine went through this about 10 months ago and ended up with a Kia Soul EV.

By "The Nissan is a non-starter" do you mean the original Leaf or the new one - and why? The original Leaf looked like a turd; the new one is much better looking and has longer range.

The Golf seems expensive for what you get ... the range is still low.

LEASE, don't buy. Resale value on any of the low-range EVs is poor. They will all be obsolete in a couple of years.
We looked at a few year old Leaf and it just looks to weird but maybe the new ones look better.

I thought about the value of the e-golf and with all the driver assist stuff and the VW quality and finish, it seems to be well built. The battery management was brought up as a weakness so I will have to look into battery management on the others cars too to see if there is something there.

I totally agree with the Resale value and leasing as it looks like EV's loose about 50% value in a couple of years of low mileage driving.
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
I'd be interested in the math on that statement. Seems that it might be challenging, since the number of miles you can go on pure EV is limited, as are the places that offer free charging.
I think a case can be made for this.

In our situation, we are looking at about $600 per month with a jump to $700 as soon as our gall hits $2.00/litre.

A lease would be about that much I expect.

Charging stations tend to be more readily available in urban centres. In our business, we look after systems on many high-rise towers downtown and they have free charging when you park in there parkades. The city has many green initiatives/incentives for developers.

I could justify the purchase/lease and even if I charged at home, I would see a few bucks per charge. A charging station can be installed at home for about 2 or 3 thousand.
 

2.2TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Location
TDI
⠀⠀
It would seem that we have a bunch of cars kicking around and this would only add to the driveway clutter.
The goal is to replace the Honda. This has been our company truck for the last 4 years. We have a small business and the business owns the Honda. The Honda is getting tired as it has been well used. I can spend a bunch of money to fix it up however, the EV discussion has been on the table for over a year.
Our business would retire the Honda and get another vehicle to use in its place.
The other cars are our personal cars which we use for shopping and longer trips etc... The GTI is basically our son's car and the Mini is my wife's car.
I thought about the Beetle to use for work but I don't want to subject it to bumper to bumper driving in our city which has some of the worst drivers around. It is almost 20 years old and doesn't hold much of our tools or equipment. I guess if I put a trailer behind it but really only use it to pull our trailer and transport our kayaks. On paper (with our provincial insurance provider), the car is probably worth a couple of thousand, but we have a huge investment in it with all the work done, this why we want to limit the usage locally.
In Vancouver gas is $1.61/litre which works out to $6.12 CDN/per US gallon.
It is expected to go up to $2.00/litre. We get about 350 km per fill up with the Honda and that costs $80 right now. We are spending about $600/month on fuel and looking at that going up to $700/month. A Ford F150 or similar will run us about $50,000 and burn even more fuel. We don't seem to have any compact work vans of interest in our car automobile market. No small diesels available either. We could get a 2015 Fixed TDI for more than what they cost new but they are very limited.
That is why I asked for opinions to see what comes back about EV cars.
Hope this makes more sense.
I only raised the question because without the back story people wouldn't understand why you'd want a 5th car (especially an EV)

Now that i've read this last post from you it makes more sense why you want/need a new vehicle... Personally, if I need a work vehicle, I wouldn't be buying an EV... when I think work vehicle, I think of a truck or something like a transit connect, which by the way, you will soon be able to get with a 1.5 diesel. I know with EV's you'll be able to get some rebate money back (I think BC has the program, I know here in Ontario the program was just scraped) but regardless, from a strictly work vehicle perspective, I'm buying some sort of cargo van. Again, this depends on what type of work you're using the vehicle for
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
2.2, A small van would be nice like the NV200 or Transit as it wold fit in low clearance areas. Our work is very different from day to day and usually I can do most of work work with 4 small tools bags which is why the Honda has worked for years. When we do get really heavy stuff, it gets shipped from Toronto to the job sites and craned to the roof so I don't really need the cargo space.

Alternative fuel options would be great but so far we just has gas options for these little vans.

Too bad about the EV rebate in Ontario going away. I hope it sticks around in BC to help promote this direction.
 

2.2TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Location
TDI
⠀⠀
2.2, A small van would be nice like the NV200 or Transit as it wold fit in low clearance areas. Our work is very different from day to day and usually I can do most of work work with 4 small tools bags which is why the Honda has worked for years. When we do get really heavy stuff, it gets shipped from Toronto to the job sites and craned to the roof so I don't really need the cargo space.

Alternative fuel options would be great but so far we just has gas options for these little vans.

Too bad about the EV rebate in Ontario going away. I hope it sticks around in BC to help promote this direction.
Yea it's a shame they haven't come in a diesel variant yet... Well at the end of the day if you think an EV makes the most sense for your work car situation then go for it
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
I voted no because there are better value options than a brand new e-Golf even though it sounds like a short range EV is perfect for your regular driving. There are lots of used EVs on the market that will suit your needs for less than half of the price of the new e-Golf. If the purchase cost isn't a concern, I think a gently used Bolt EV would be the better buy, as one can be had for about the same price as a new e-Golf.
 

PB_NB

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
TDI
1999 New Beetle
VeeDub, we are short supply of Bolts, no used ones are available that i can find. Seems that no one has this car (new or used) to test or even buy. There are lots of used i3's, Volts, IMEIs and Leafs around (some with very low mileage). An i3 with a range extender would give us the range plus the gas backup just in case.

We still have to look at the 2018 Leaf as it looks like they changed the look of it.

Maybe we are too soon to jump into the battery market! Lots of interesting concept cars coming.
 

GoFaster

Moderator at Large
Joined
Jun 16, 1999
Location
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Re battery degradation: Neither the Leaf nor the e-Golf have temperature regulation of their batteries. As I understand it, hot climates (e.g. Arizona) are associated with battery-pack degradation on the first-generation Leaf. No idea if the e-Golf has the same issue (I suspect that not enough have been sold to establish if there are any pattern faults). No idea if it's been fixed on the new Leaf - too new - but it also still doesn't have thermal regulation of its batteries.

Given that Vancouver BC's climate is as temperate as they get, I don't think you need to concern yourself with this.
 

bhtooefr

TDIClub Enthusiast, ToofTek Inventor
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Location
Newark, OH
TDI
None
Unless you're doing fast charging, then the temperature issue becomes a problem everywhere. And AFAIK, they do still degrade surprisingly fast (at least the LEAFs) in temperate climates, it's just they don't degrade within the warranty.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
I've heard that the battery in the gen2 Leaf degrades even worse/faster than the gen1. It may have less of a buffer in addition to no thermal management. Supposedly the gen3 will have thermal management. It's unfortunate that a couple of poorly executed EV's are tarnishing the public's perception of battery lifespan/degradation.
 

bhtooefr

TDIClub Enthusiast, ToofTek Inventor
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Location
Newark, OH
TDI
None
I think it's merely extrapolated - the 30 kWh Gen 1 LEAF has horrific degradation compared to the 24 kWh Gen 1 LEAF (which was already horrific itself), and the 40 kWh Gen 2 LEAF is using the same battery technology as the 30 kWh Gen 1, just more of it, and is having more thermal issues than the 30 kWh Gen 1 had (with things like DC fast charging).
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
Yeah, that's just based on early reports from gen2 Leaf owners. Time will tell. The larger battery probably has greater thermal mass and lower surface area to volume ratio- so removing excess heat is more of a challenge.
 
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