The Volkswagen e-Golf is an attention-grabbing piece of electrical car historical past. It was solely manufactured through the seventh era of the long-lasting Golf nameplate, earlier than any of the ID-badged EVs got here to life, making it an nearly 10-year-old automotive.
It additionally got here with a relatively small, 24.4-kilowatt-hour (gross) battery pack (an even bigger model was launched in 2017) that enabled an EPA vary of simply 83 miles, which was solely of any actual use round city. However after a number of years of use that embrace 1000’s of discharge cycles and tons of of 1000’s of miles, can the e-Golf stand its floor as a contemporary, cost-effective city runabout?
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That’s what the great folks from the Out of Spec Critiques YouTube channel tried to search out out utilizing their very own cash. After shopping for a 2016 e-Golf with an unknown driving historical past that most likely concerned an accident sooner or later, InsideEVs alumnus Kyle Conner needed to see how a lot the battery had degraded after 125,000 miles and over 1,000 discharge cycles.
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The automotive value simply $3,500 and got here with a slew of points like a really worn-out suspension, mismatched tires, and an in depth listing of errors exhibiting on the central touchscreen show. It was additionally a smoker’s automotive, so the cabin smelled such as you’d anticipate.
Some issues had been mounted and others are within the pipeline, together with a full suspension rebuild, however I’m going to go away that apart and give attention to how the EV stacks up in a real-world vary check.
The check began with a top-up to 100% from a DC quick charger. Then, Kyle and his passenger went on a check loop, driving at round 55 miles per hour attempting to get the battery as near zero as attainable earlier than plugging right into a charger to get to 100% as soon as once more.
Ultimately, they’d calculate what number of kilowatt hours the automotive used for the journey and evaluate it in opposition to the worth that the EV had when new. However right here’s the place issues get a bit blurry as a result of though VW touted the e-Golf’s battery as a 24.2-kWh unit, that’s the gross capability.
Moreover, for a outcome that’s as near actuality as attainable, it will have been supreme to measure the usable capability of the battery when the automotive was new, however that’s out of the query, seeing how the unique proprietor by no means bothered to do one thing like this. So, to stage out the enjoying subject, Kyle used a price of 20 kWh as a tough estimate of what the EV had initially, a quantity that he took from fellow YouTuber Bjorn Nyland, who’s identified within the electrical automotive group for performing degradation checks.
So, armed with this data, the pair set off with the AC on, the fan set to the bottom pace, and the driving mode set to Eco.
With the automotive exhibiting 25% capability, the estimated remaining vary was simply 10 miles. The motive force turned off the AC and decreased the cruising pace to 50 mph at this level in order that they might make it to the charging station safely.
A pair extra miles later, the e-Golf went into Restricted Efficiency mode. With simply 2 miles of vary left, it went into limp mode and restricted the highest pace to lower than 50 mph and the acceleration response to what may greatest be described as nearly useless.
That mentioned, the duo made it to the charger efficiently with the automotive exhibiting simply 1% SoC remaining. Whereas plugged into the DC charger, Kyle ran the numbers and got here up with the next outcome: 13.84 kWh, or 31% of the battery capability was misplaced after 125,000 miles.
In different phrases, the usable vary of this explicit e-Golf is now about 40 miles, which is half of the EPA estimate when the automotive was new. Is that this sufficient to make it a viable every day driver?
Kyle argues that it’s, contemplating he paid simply $3,500 for it and that he’s planning on charging it a number of occasions through the day and driving it round city. The e-Golf is able to quick charging, albeit at lower than 50 kW, so a full cost will be achieved in roughly half-hour, making it a fairly cost-effective technique to get round city.
40 miles in 2023 (and shortly 2024) from an EV is laughable at first sight, nevertheless it goes to point out that not all people wants 500 miles of vary every single day. As all the time and as with each automotive (combustion-powered included), it is determined by what the motive force wants.
However what do you suppose: may you reside with an EV that may go lower than 50 miles on a full cost? Tell us within the feedback under.