Volkswagen Golf Plug-in Electric (Blue-E-Motion)

By Alborz Fallah | May 04th, 2010

Volkswagen has today unveiled a rather interesting car, a plug-in electric version of their best selling model. The Volkswagen Golf electric car is getting ready for production with a release date set for 2013.

Although the Germans have arguably been playing catch up when it comes to hybrid and electric cars, the zero-emission Golf (which makes use of lithium-ion battery technology) is a good indication of where Volkswagen is heading in the future.

Volkswagen has called it the Golf Blue-E-Motion and it represents the first of many electric cars expected from the German manufacturer. According to Volkswagen Chairman Martin Wiinterkorn we will also see electric versions of the Jetta straight after the Golf.

Nonetheless the Volkswagen Up Blue-E-Motion will be the first of the Blue-E-Motion cars to the hit the market.

The electric Golf is powered by a a 115-hp electric motor that pushes power to the front wheels via a Volkswagen developed single-gear gearbox codenamed MQ210.

Storing energy to feed the motor is a lithium-ion battery pack located ingeniously in the middle tunnel of the floorpan as well as under the rear seat and in the floor of the trunk.

Volkswagen says it has a capacity of 26.5 kilowatt-hours, in otherwords it can drive for about 150km before needing a recharge. Although we are not sure how long it takes to recharge, going by current industry standards it will mostly likely be a 5-7 hour recharge time for a full recharge or a 30-45 minute fast-charge for a 80% recharge with the option for a fast charge with the current infrastructure.

Weighing in at a hefty 1,544kg the top speed of the Volkswagen Golf Blue-E-Motion is quoted at about 140km/h while it takes around 11.8 seconds to go from 0-100km/h.

The German company is expected to build up to 500 prototypes for internal testing before the production ready model hits showrooms in 2013. Despite building electric-only models, Volkswagen will also release a range of hybrid variants including a Touareg hybrid, Jetta hybrid (in 2012) and Golf and Passat hybrids by 2013.

Marc

The car has finaly become an appliace, I wonder what it’s energy star rating is?
ABMPSV

Nice car for the city. Now the only problem is the price. How much?? It is under $30,000 it will be a winner.

Dennis

No Chance!!!
lazybones

Thats a decent battery pack at 26Kwh! Can’t see this being even under 50K if Mitsubishi want 60K for a smaller car with a 16Kwh pack.

Let the price war begin!

Neo Utopia

I don’t see much sence in having all-electric cars if people don’t recharge them with renewable energy. The quiet electric motors may be more dangerous to people than the emissions the the coal power plants.
Camry lover

I would buy this automobile if the base car was a Toyota. I have heard of some atrocious accounts of unreliability associated with Volkswagens.

Their cars seems to be quite good, but they apparently have issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Duff

“Although the Germans have arguably been playing catch up when it comes to hybrid and electric cars, the zero-emission Golf (which makes use of lithium-ion battery technology) is a good indication of where Volkswagen is heading in the future.”

Ever heard about Audi A4 tdi duo(1997 – on)? or Golf Umwelt duo(1989 concept)? Or Golf Citystromer(1974 – on)? or New beetle hybrid(1994 concept)
With all due respect , i know Australia is miles from anywhere but you still should check the facts first.Germans had always sober attitude toward hybrids and the reason is they love their high speed cruising,the Audi tdi duo didn`t achive better economy(beating 5.5l/100km is hard) and they have extremely comprehensive recycling politics with dust to dust car relating scenario firmly ingrained in the new car development strategy and the batteries are a nightmare.
And for plug-in that actually makes sense now sin Germany`s power supply is now 20% renewable with 100% target by 2020 (just notice the amount of wind and solar panel farms when driving down pretty much any stretch of autobahn)
Thank you and good night.

ABMPSV

Spot on. If I am correct in Germany car companies must recycle 80% of the car. All parts are marked so they know when comes to recycling where it should go.
Shak

While i support your argument, i think the article was more trying to press on the point that the Germans have not had much mainstream success with hybrid/plug in tech up till now. People like Toyota and Honda have for some reason been able to gain worldwide acknowledgment for their blob shaped hybrids.

Neo Utopia

The simple answer is, its called green washing. The total carbon emissions from all-electric cars is more than from a highly efficient diesel, the electricity supply needs to be more than X% renewable power for the electric car to be greener, taking into account whole lifecycle assessment of course. Yes the electric cars don’t need any oil (while in use) but they still need coal in coal countries, which is a natural polluting resource itself. Those cars which Duff listed above helped pioneer what you see from Toyota and Honda, but to put them into production at the time was unsustainable because of the low percentage of renewable energy supply back then.