VW Electric Golf Hits UK Market, Price = £25,845

vw e-golf

The Volkswagen e-Golf, the electric version of the extremely popular VW Golf, has now hit the UK market. After the government’s £5000 Plug-In Car Grant (PICG), the price comes to £25,845. That’s still a bit higher than the Nissan Leaf, which sells for £20,990, but may not be too far off for those who prefer VW and the e-Golf.

VW also offers the smaller and simpler e-Up! in the UK. That one goes for £19,250, and if you’re just looking for a low-priced electric car, is better competition for the world-leading Leaf.

Under the European rating system (quite a bit more loose than the US system), the e-Golf can reportedly get 118 miles per charge, and the fully electric car is said to go from 0 mph to 62 mph in 10.4 seconds. That’s nothing special, but the best part of that is that the car’s instant torque (one of the key benefits of electric cars) allows quick acceleration into traffic, when entering a roundabout from a stopped position, etc.

Using a standard electricity outlet (or the “mains”), it takes about 13 hours to fully charge a VW e-Golf. However, if you use a fast-charger, you can get an 80% charge in just 35 minutes.

When I tested out the VW e-Up! in Barcelona last November (twice), one of the coolest and most unique features of the car was its many regenerative braking options — 5 in total. The VW e-Golf apparently has the same 5 options. From the way the VW representatives focused on this, it was clear VW saw this as one of their unique selling points.

The VW e-Golf is also VW’s first car to use full LED headlights (aka headlamps), which should help a bit with efficiency.


“The VW e-Golf’s AC electric motor delivers 85kW (or 115PS) and a healthy 270Nm of torque. The 318kg battery pack is housed under the car’s floor, and there’s an optional heat pump that draws heat from both ambient air and the vehicle’s drive systems rather than draining the batteries,” Business Car Manager writes.

“In fact, Volkswagen says the heat pump can boost the e-Golf’s range by as much as 20 per cent when temperatures are low. The adoption of an improved heat pump-based heating system was the main feature of the Nissan LEAF’s recent mid-life update.”

Aside from these first two plug-in models from VW, it is also planning a high-performance plug-in hybrid electric Golf GTE. Keep your eyes out for more news from VW shortly!

The VW e-Golf was first introduced to the German market, since that is where it is produced. It sells for €34,900 there.

14 thoughts on “VW Electric Golf Hits UK Market, Price = £25,845”

  1. The battery weight seems to be too much for the amount of KwH delivered. How does it compare to the Telsa battery. It will be good to include the wh/kg in the future so one can compare. Does VW provide an upgrade path to replace the batteries with Li-air since they have indicated that’s their future direction? What’s preventing VW from using Carbon Fiber like BMW with the i3.

      1. BMW went about it the smart way. BMW makes the Carbon Fiber, in a factory in Washington state. So they are in the car business and Carbon Fiber business now. Boeing will be using Carbon Fiber for their planes so Washington state is a smart choice. Auto makers will have to go to Carbon Fiber ultimately, a 20% reduction in weight, an even higher reduction in energy consumption, and an increase in range are compelling features. Range anxiety is the biggest obstacle to EV adoption, anything that helps increase the car range is a great boost for adoption. I think the reluctance of Nissan and VW in adopting Carbon Fiber is more an apprehension on embarking on a new manufacturing technology than CB price.

        1. Hurrya – I Agree
          Carbon Fibre and soon it will be made with Nano tubes, will offer designers never before freedom to combine form with function…

          Perhaps in the near future, BMW will have another motto:

          The Pursuit of Design Perfection

          or

          The Ultimate Design Material

  2. eVehicle makers are targeting the wealthy since they are the ones that can afford it. These save wealthy people also be the ones most likely to either own and or consider installing solar panels.

    I look for Tesla to lead the way toward marketing a complete homeowner package that consists of solar panels, storage batteries and an eVehicle to maximize the solar footprint of these wealthy people. They will be the first ones to reduce their energy utility to almost zero and then brag to all their friends about how they have gone GREEN and what is holding up all the rest of us.

    1. Agree. But note that the middle class is now driving solar sales in the US, and the lower-middle-class in some parts of Australia.

      Also, note that 11 electric cars are now cheaper than the average new car in the US! http://evobsession.com/11-electric-cars-cost-less-average-new-car-us/

      Links for top comments:

      http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/28/us-solar-growth-driven-middle-class-americans/

      http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/12/solar-panels-used-low-income-households/

      1. Zachary – Great links!

        I think as the Big manufacturers accept that the eVehicle market is not only, not going away but getting stronger each year they will start to develop eVehicles in the $20,000 to $30,000 range before other new startups (like Tesla) beat them to the marketplace. Once that happens, there will be a major “shift” in new car sales from ICE engined automobiles to eVehicles.

        Also, in less than 5 years, the used eVehicle market will allow those looking for a good used eVehicle in the $12,000 to $20,000 range, to pick up a great deal on a used eVehicle whose battery will also help reduce their utility bill since it can be used to store some of the unused energy generated by their homes solar panels.

        Given the choice of buying a more expensive new eVehicle or spending the same amount of money on a used eVehicle and one or more new larger capacity batteries, I think most will go for the latter; especially if they already have or are considering installing, solar panels on their roof.

        The above “used” combination would allow these savvy shoppers to save large amounts of money yearly on:

        1. Tags and title fees which are based on price/current value.

        2. Car insurance, since new vehicles cost the most to insure.

        3. Utility bills, since they could store more of their own Energy, verses “giving it” to their Utilities

        4. Deprecation, since new cars lose the most the first year

          1. I can’t locate it, guess I will start keeping entire links instead of trusting small links, etc…

          2. yeah. and not sure if you’ve seen, but if you click “Share” under a comment, there’s then a link button you can click to get a direct link to that comment. (Sort of hidden.)

          3. Now you tell me! ;^)

            I’d suggest that they make it a bigger button and put some color on it because it is a most useful tool!

            BTW: What App. do you use to keep your comments so that you can refer to them as needed?

          4. Yeah, i know.

            I don’t really save them. But do save certain stats & things in Google Docs. And one CleanTechnica and my other blogs… 😛 That helps 😀

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