Volkswagen Golf GTE Review 2014

Volkswagen Golf GTE Review 2014

Volkswagen Golf GTE Review 2014 – plug-in hybrids are coming.

Terrific Fuel Economy, Excellent Performance, 30+ Mile Battery.
Why Would VW Bother With Battery-Only Golf?

For – terrific performance, unbelievable economy, great quality.
Against – too expensive
***** out of 5

ZURICH, Switzerland – If you want CO2 emissions-free motoring you can either buy an all-electric car with free range-anxiety added, or go the less purist route and buy a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

This will give you up to 45 miles of feeling pious driving on electric power only, with the guarantee that when the battery runs dry, the internal combustion engine will simply kick in and give you hundreds of miles of range.

It sounds like a no-brainer doesn’t it?

And the plug-in hybrid will cost a bit less than the battery-only option, because the increased range of the latter requires a larger, pricier battery.

I once asked Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk why his electric vehicles didn’t have a range-extender option.

Musk said Tesla had no intention of veering away from the pure battery-only principle. He said this would make the Model S into a hybrid, which didn’t do anything perfectly. He then came up with delphic response.

“That would be like a frog, able to function in and out of the water, but not very good at either,” Musk said. Not quite sure what he was getting at there, but BMW doesn’t see it that way. Its i8 super sports car is a plug-in hybrid, and its little i3 electric city car has a petrol range-extender option.

Democrats
Why does VW already sell a battery-only Golf? Because some states like California insist on manufacturers providing them, even though nobody in their right minds would buy one. How could politicians be that dumb? California is governed by Democrats/Socialists, but don’t ask me to make the connection.

Volkswagen is joining the growing ranks of plug-in hybrid fanciers, and launched the Golf GTE here earlier this month. The GTE is powered by two engines, naturally; a 1.4 litre 148 hp four-cylinder petrol engine and a 101 hp electric motor, which adds up to an effective maximum power of 201 hp. There’s a six-speed automatic gear box. Performance is impressive, with zero to 60 mph taking about 7.5 seconds. On unlimited German autobahns the car can reach 138 mph. VW claims average fuel consumption of 188 miles per gallon, using a European Union formula which insists on combining two-thirds electric use and one third hybrid.

Meaningless
This is really meaningless, because if the car is used substantially in petrol-only mode, this would never come close to being achieved, yet if you just used the battery, and got to perfect the regenerative braking facility the figure would be more like infinity. The car’s battery can be recharged in 2-1/2 to 3-1/3 hours depending on the type of domestic power available.

To get the best out of the GTE, the driver can select from five options including electric-only, and “hybrid-auto”, which will maximise energy retrieval from the regenerative braking system. Anyone buying a car like this would do well to insist on a couple of hours training from the dealer, even though VW says it is all intuitive.

What is surprising about the GTE is its performance. Given that it is primarily a green, economy machine, VW has decided to make it go fast as well. VW apparently reckons this can be both an economy machine and a sportster at the same time, and I think it has a point.

The overwhelming feeling when you climb into this car is quality. The way the doors clunk shut, the look of the bodywork. Inside it feels solid and beautifully made. Even so, prices start at an eye-watering £28,000 after the £5,000 government handout.

(VW provided flight to Zurich, two nights in hotels)

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