e-Golf to be produced parallel with ID

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tmucs

***
Joined
Apr 11, 2018
Messages
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Yet another rumor... which seems to be of official information. Recently there was a post on a German news site, tag24. Just use google translate in case you don't know German. I thought I'll share this piece of news here. Feel free to share your thoughts.

https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/chemnitz-dresden-zwickau-sachsen-vw-interview-thomas-ulbrich-elektro-autos-531308

Wie lange gibt es den E-Golf noch?

Der E-Golf ist ein unheimlich wichtiges Fahrzeug. Gerade für die Übergangsphase; so lange, bis wir mit den MEB-Fahrzeugen in einer ausreichenden Anzahl verfügbar sind im Markt. Solche Umstiegszeiträume sind üblich. Für den Start des MEB* ist nicht mit dem E-Golf Schluss. Auch in Dresden sollen künftig MEB-Fahrzeuge hergestellt werden. Aber wir sind dabei, für 2020 einen geeigneten
 
But given that the ID will have a 60+ kWh battery, it isn't going to be cheap. I think VW assumed battery prices would be drastically lower by 2019, but is now having a reality check.

Assuming that holds, it would make sense to continue selling the e-Golf in parallel as a budget friendly option. Think of it as in iPhone SE compared to an iPhone X.
 
Given the potential price difference I can see owning both in a two car family (said the guy who has recently "downsized" to being a four car family for two people).

The e-Golf range is actually perfect for us around town and occasional trips over the hill. It is my wife's daily (she drives the most miles by far) and our weekend car.

Unless it is a "maintenance drive" in the Ur Quattro we seldom drive the gas cars on weekends. I commute splitting miles between the road tripper BMW 540iT and my old beater 1986 Audi 4000 quattro. (What is amazing is they both get about the same fuel economy on my 15 mile round trip commute because the 4000 quattro fuel economy suffers mightily on the garbage overpriced gas we get nowadays--I owned one brand new in the 1980s and several since and have witnessed the decline first hand.)

In order for me to give up our ICE car in favor on an EV for road trips the EV needs to go _at least_ 250 miles on a charge in all weather conditions with creature comfort amenities on. Otherwise I will keep pouring gas into my 19 year old gas guzzling V8 BMW wagon. That means it will be a pretty spendy car and it needs to also be at least as comfortable as my near antique 540iT, which means not a Bolt or similar. Tesla Model 3 or Model S (with at least an 85 kwh battery), yes. Auto e-Tron quattro, absolutely. VW I.D. something or another (my wife loves the look of the Buzz), maybe. Meanwhile, the bulk of our miles now fall on the 2015 e-Golf and she shrugs off more gracefully than any car I have ever owned.

Our rapidly appreciating 1983 Audi Ur Quattro garage queen may someday get parlayed into the road trip capable EV of my dreams. Meanwhile, every mile we put on the e-Golf is a mile less on everything else and I like it that way because it will prolong the life of the guzzlers until such time road trip worthy EVs become more reasonable.

So yeah, 125 mile (or 83 mile in our case) and 300 mile EVs would certainly work well in our household. By then I will be looking at retirement as well and may not want to self-maintain such a large fleet anymore.
 
NeilBlanchard said:
That doesn't make sense - a 200-300 mile EV and a 125 mile EV, that are otherwise nearly the same.

First of all, nobody said that there would be no battery upgrade for the golf. Who knows, maybe they will even build the next golf on the 8th gen after all.

Then, just because they are similar, I don't think that they'd have to discontinue one of the two(id / golf). For instance there's the polo, which is even more similar to the golf hatchback. Or compare golf variant vs passat variant. Or 3 doors golf and scirocco.

On the other hand, I think there is still ways to make the principles of the two models totally different. Beginning with the design, looks, maybe ID will be the one who is better equipped with geek stuff like autonomous driving, exclusive keyless features, AR windshield, exclusive voice control and no buttons dash. And they'll keep the golf as a car with a more conservative "old but gold" design.
 
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