Nissan thinks not, VW e-Golf & e-up! reviews
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/09/13/reviewed-frankfurt-golf/2810223/ Electric VW e-Golf is built for city mobility by Keith Barry, Reviewed.com / USA TODAY September 13, 2013 [image http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/11d16938247f521bbf83a7e1bbbeb5d0f9d5e3e1/c=702-555-1192-923&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/test/2013/09/13/1379092134000-GOLF.jpg GOLF ] Electric VW e-Golf is about city mobility, not blistering performance. FRANKFURT -- Next to fuel-thirsty supercars and wild prototypes, the Volkswagen e-Golf might have seemed like an odd debut at this week's Frankfurt Motor Show. After all, it's based on an existing vehicle and takes nearly three times longer to accelerate than some of the supercars on nearby turntables. But this little electric car may be key to helping Volkswagen meet upcoming European Union emissions regulations. Carmakers must reduce the average emissions of their entire product lineup by about 40% by 2020, compared with the 2007 fleet average. That's tough to do without some pure electric cars, which explains why VW brought the e-Golf to Frankfurt along with the tiny e-up! (Yes, it's lower case and there's an exclamation point in the name of the car.) It's part of a companywide strategy to sell as many different kinds of powetrains as possible, including gasoline, diesel, plug-in hybrid and pure electric. CAR DEBUTS: Infiniti tries to fuse car styles with the Q30 RELATED: Is this the future of Volvo? Unlike the hot Golf-R sitting nearby at the VW display, the e-Golf is more about city mobility than blistering performance. In fact, it's pretty much designed as a commuter car. The 118-mile range more than enough for the average German -- or American -- round-trip, and it's possible to quick charge it to 80% battery life in just 30 minutes, as long as you're plugged into a quick-charge station. On the road, it appears that Volkswagen assumes you'll be stuck in traffic. Top speed is limited to 87 miles per hour, and it would take forever to get there, as the e-Golf does 0-62 mph in 10.4 seconds. Even if you haven't driven a new car since the late '80s, that still wouldn't be considered fast. But around town, all that torque is on tap the second you accelerate, thanks to the electric motor. E-Golf drivers also get three drive modes and standard navigation, plus VW's first application of LED headlamps. The car is only visually distinguishable from a standard Golf thanks to a strip of blue trim at the front of the car. The same goes for the functional but well-appointed interior. [© usatoday.com] http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/up/66044/volkswagen-e-review Volkswagen e-up! review by Jack Rix 13 Sep, 2013 [images http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/up/66040/vw-e-pictures VW e-up! pictures ] Volkswagen e-up! was always designed for electric power, and now we find out what it’s like on road Verdict For a certain type of driver, who lives in a city, has money to spend and owns a second car for the weekends, the new e-up! will be ideal. For everyone else, the classic electric car limitations of price, charging time and range will get in the way. From behind the wheel, though, it’s nippy, refined and lots of fun. While Audi and Porsche are spearheading the VW Group’s efforts with plug-in hybrids, Volkswagen has picked up the baton for electric cars. An all-electric e-Golf, due in November, debuted at last week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, but first to arrive will be the e-up!. To rate its chances, we took the production car for a spin on the German city’s busy roads. Buy an e-up!, and you won’t get the stickers on the side, but you should still be able to spot it instantly. All electric VWs will have C-shaped LED lights up front, plus slippery, aero-optimised alloys. The batteries are under the floorpan, between the axles, so boot space is the same as on any up!, expanding from 250 litres to 950 litres with the seats folded. But the e-up! weighs 210kg more, at 1,139kg – that’s just 66kg less than a Golf 1.2 TSI. Hauling you along is an 81bhp electric motor, which drives the front wheels via a single-ratio gearbox. The quoted 0-62mph time of 12.4 seconds might sound a little sluggish, but it’s eight-tenths quicker than that of the 74bhp petrol up!, and it feels it. Squeeze the throttle, and the car surges away from a standstill, spinning its wheels if the surface is wet. And it’s that hit of 210Nm of torque at zero rpm that makes the e-up! the perfect choice for weaving through jams and darting from point to point around town. The car’s simplicity is really appealing, too. With its bright, minimalist interior, great seating position and straightforward powertrain, the up! feels as though it was designed from the outset to run on battery power – which, of course, it was, hence the neat packaging. All that extra weight hasn’t ruined the supple ride, either. It still glides over bumps in the road like a car twice its size. And without a three-cylinder engine thrumming away in front of your nose, refinement has improved significantly, too. The up! has always liked to be chucked around, and that hasn’t been lost in the conversion from petrol to electric power. In fact, the lower centre of gravity means it feels marginally more stable in corners. The steering is light, but due to the car’s size you always feel connected to the front wheels. There are no fewer than five levels of regenerative braking force to choose from – D, D1, D2, D3 and B. In the default D mode, the effect is only activated once you touch the brake pedal. Select B, and the moment you come off the throttle it’s as if you’ve given a firm prod to the brakes. It takes some getting used to. However, in stop-start traffic there’s really no need to touch the brakes at all; you simply let the regenerative braking do the work for you and charge up the batteries as you go. Drive carefully, and you can expect around 100 miles from a charge. To help maximise range, Eco and Eco+ modes limit power from the motor. Topping up the batteries takes nine hours from a 240V household socket. That’s all pretty standard fare for an electric car. What’s not is the price. The e-up! is expected to cost anywhere from £18,000 to £20,000 after the Government’s £5,000 electric car grant. That’s expensive – especially when, for a few grand more, you could have the more spacious BMW i3. [© Dennis Publishing] ... http://auth.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/up Volkswagen up! review http://recombu.com/cars/articles/news/vw-aiming-to-be-world-s-biggest-electric-car-maker-by-2018 VW aiming to be world's biggest electric car maker by 2018 13th September 2013 - Volkswagen has been relatively late to market with electric cars, but Europe's wealthiest car manufacturer has big plans for that class of vehicle. http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/frankfurt-motor-show/renault-nissan-braces-ev-battle Renault-Nissan braces for EV battle 14 September 2013 Renault-Nissan faces new competition from VW for its electric vehicle market lead, but boss Carlos Ghosn welcomes the challenge. http://www.motoring.com.au/news/2013/vw-will-have-to-come-through-us-–-ghosn-38863 VW will have to come through us – Ghosn 13 September 2013 motoring.com.au - Renault-Nissan chief slams Volkswagen's tilt at global EV leadership. http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/9/13/VW-Sees-the-Most-Green-in-Going-Green-7716216/ VW Sees the Most Green in Going Green Sep 13, 2013 It's no secret that Volkswagen has every intention of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018. It even publicly declared that just a ... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/motoring/electric-car-demand-so-low-vw-wont-import/story-fngmee2f-1226718846353 Electric car demand so low VW won't import September 14, 2013 AUSTRALIA has stalled on the electric vehicle starting grid and will miss out on the new wave of cars coming from Volkswagen, as the ... For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: Simplo eying the EV battery market EVLN: Brazil ready to shift to EVs EVLN: iMiev Tardis turns Aussie heads, an electric dream machine EVLN: The reason you don’t want a plugin is you don’t know about them EVLN: What's the Least-Expensive Electric-Only Mode Car? + EVLN: 80-yr-old Batso neck-pulls his Leaf while his wife steers {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Late-comer-VW-sez-will-be-compliance-car-leader-tp4665239.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
