looking to buy e-golf and offload in 5-6 years

Hello everyone, I searched for a lot of battery degradation posts, but I was having a hard time understanding everything...

my commute is 22 miles one way, get free charging at work (4 hrs of 6kwh charger), and if needed i can charge near my apartment, or near a lot of places i run errands to.

i`m really considering buying a used 2016 e-golf with 48k miles. I drive about 20k miles a year.

I would like to drive it as much as possible to not have to pay for the expensive gas here, but my main concern is: will i still be able to commute to and from work for the next 5-6 years without having to worry about battery degradation? i`m mainly stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, and the temperature is an ideal southern california weather (40-80F most of the year).

If you are only using it to commute, you should be fine. To be extra nice to the battery, you may want to only charge it to 80% (if possible) or 90% if you feel that is not enough range, especially on super hot days. I believe the 2016 e-golf SE comes with a 3.6 kW (15 amps at 240 V) on board charger but the SEL and SE's optioned with the quick charge package come with a 7.2 kW (30 amps at 240 volts) on board charger. The charger is in the car, and charging is in kW, not kWh - kWh is energy. Before you buy the car, you should charge it up to 100% and drive it down to ~20% state of charge to get a sense of the battery health.

f1geek said:

If you are only using it to commute, you should be fine. To be extra nice to the battery, you may want to only charge it to 80% (if possible) or 90% if you feel that is not enough range, especially on super hot days. I believe the 2016 e-golf SE comes with a 3.6 kW (15 amps at 240 V) on board charger but the SEL and SE's optioned with the quick charge package come with a 7.2 kW (30 amps at 240 volts) on board charger. The charger is in the car, and charging is in kW, not kWh - kWh is energy. Before you buy the car, you should charge it up to 100% and drive it down to ~20% state of charge to get a sense of the battery health.

Click to expand...

thank you for the input. I`m actually also considering the golf TDI (I know it doesnt really compare as apples to apples) as its MPG is still a savings vs my Honda S2000 (20mpg).

now my main concern is residual value between TDI vs e-golf, and how much maintenance cost during ownership.

I imagine the TDI wil cost you more for maintenance: brakes, oil changes, tires, adblue fluid, spark plugs, engine air filters, transmission oil changes, and who knows what else. The e-golf will probably not need brakes since most slowing is regenerative braking, and may need tires but none of the other things I listed for TDI. Also, the TDI is putting out horrible pollution which you and, if you have any kids, get to breather in (Of the deaths caused by air pollution, half are caused by diesel particulates). Also, you should consider your stress levels: the e-Golf is so quiet and serene and a pleasure to drive with no engine rattle, no stinky fumes, and no jerky shifts - it is so much less stressful than driving an ICE car. Driving an EV for 6 years will probably lead to you having less gray hair due the lower stress provided by the buttery smooth EV experience. Hey, I'm not at all biased. .

mokinbird87 said:

f1geek said:

If you are only using it to commute, you should be fine. To be extra nice to the battery, you may want to only charge it to 80% (if possible) or 90% if you feel that is not enough range, especially on super hot days. I believe the 2016 e-golf SE comes with a 3.6 kW (15 amps at 240 V) on board charger but the SEL and SE's optioned with the quick charge package come with a 7.2 kW (30 amps at 240 volts) on board charger. The charger is in the car, and charging is in kW, not kWh - kWh is energy. Before you buy the car, you should charge it up to 100% and drive it down to ~20% state of charge to get a sense of the battery health.

Click to expand...

thank you for the input. I`m actually also considering the golf TDI (I know it doesnt really compare as apples to apples) as its MPG is still a savings vs my Honda S2000 (20mpg).

now my main concern is residual value between TDI vs e-golf, and how much maintenance cost during ownership.

Click to expand...

As for stress levels... you'll never once have range anxiety with a TDI. I speak from 4 + years of experience with a 2015 e-Golf SEL, and 20 + years of experience with many TDI's.

From time to time you will have range anxiety with an e-Golf no matter how well you plan. It's just a fact of life.

Your TDI will never lose range with age.

JoulesThief said:

mokinbird87 said:

f1geek said:

If you are only using it to commute, you should be fine. To be extra nice to the battery, you may want to only charge it to 80% (if possible) or 90% if you feel that is not enough range, especially on super hot days. I believe the 2016 e-golf SE comes with a 3.6 kW (15 amps at 240 V) on board charger but the SEL and SE's optioned with the quick charge package come with a 7.2 kW (30 amps at 240 volts) on board charger. The charger is in the car, and charging is in kW, not kWh - kWh is energy. Before you buy the car, you should charge it up to 100% and drive it down to ~20% state of charge to get a sense of the battery health.

Click to expand...

thank you for the input. I`m actually also considering the golf TDI (I know it doesnt really compare as apples to apples) as its MPG is still a savings vs my Honda S2000 (20mpg).

now my main concern is residual value between TDI vs e-golf, and how much maintenance cost during ownership.

Click to expand...

As for stress levels... you'll never once have range anxiety with a TDI. I speak from 4 + years of experience with a 2015 e-Golf SEL, and 20 + years of experience with many TDI's.

From time to time you will have range anxiety with an e-Golf no matter how well you plan. It's just a fact of life.

Your TDI will never lose range with age.

Click to expand...

thanks for the insight. How would you see resale value panning out between the e-Golf vs Golf TDI in like 5-6 years?

All cars lose range with age - even diesel and gas cars - because injectors, cylinders, etc, don't work as efficiently as when they are new. You can have range anxiety in ANY car, but if you understand how to operate your vehicle, you will not have range anxiety. Some people just don't know when to add fuel to their cars (like my wife, who enjoys running the gas car on fumes, but even she doesn't get range anxiety - I get range anxiety in her gas car but never in my e-golf because I know how to drive it to reach the next charging station).

Can you even get a 2016 Golf TDI? When did VW discontinue sales thanks to their criminal diesel polluting? I suspect both cars will be worth around $5000 in 5 to 6 years, but that's a wild guess. You might as well get the EV because your running costs will be so low, and you'll be breathing much cleaner air, so it will extend your health (and those around you) as well.

mokinbird87 said:

JoulesThief said:

mokinbird87 said:

thank you for the input. I`m actually also considering the golf TDI (I know it doesnt really compare as apples to apples) as its MPG is still a savings vs my Honda S2000 (20mpg).

now my main concern is residual value between TDI vs e-golf, and how much maintenance cost during ownership.

Click to expand...

As for stress levels... you'll never once have range anxiety with a TDI. I speak from 4 + years of experience with a 2015 e-Golf SEL, and 20 + years of experience with many TDI's.

From time to time you will have range anxiety with an e-Golf no matter how well you plan. It's just a fact of life.

Your TDI will never lose range with age.

Click to expand...

thanks for the insight. How would you see resale value panning out between the e-Golf vs Golf TDI in like 5-6 years?

Click to expand...

Nobody has a crystal ball to predict the future, or value of cars.

My thought process is that electric cars with non replaceable batteries are a lot like Ipads, and iPhones, they become easily disposable and are valued accordingly, especially as newer, more powerful, or more automated cars with auto pilot become available. No idea what demand will be for a 10 year old electric car, or what it will be worth. Replacement parts and support will probably be very poor by then.

There haven't been drastic changes in TDI's. I would think that their depreciation rates will remain pretty much a constant or steady factor. Operating costs and fuel costs will of course be higher per mile traveled.

My best guess as to what a 2016 e-golf would be worth 5-6 years from now is check the market on the early Nissan Leafs. These early models had much worse battery degradation problems, and you still see MY 2012 Leafs going for around $5k on the used car market (at least here locally). The battery in the E-golf should hold up much better than those early leafs, so I imagine 5-6 years from now you should be able to sell your e-golf for around $5k.

Getting TDI values from 2011-2012 is equally difficult because of the diesel-gate scandal, there really isn't much of a used market out there. I could imagine you might get an additional $1-3k in resale value (so $6-8k) total, but over the life of the car you'll easily spend that in fuel and maintenance that you won't have to perform on an E-golf.

Just based on what you said about how you plan to drive it, the E-golf will pay off for you much more than the TDI will.

According to FuelEconomy.gov, if you are driving about 20,000 miles a year, you should expect to spend about $1750 a year in Fuel for the TDI, and $750 a year in the E-Golf. Over 5-6 years that's $5-6k in savings, plus the lower maintenance costs, means you'd need to get about $12k in resale value from the TDI to make it break even over the E-golf. That's a bit of a stretch for a then, 10-11 year old car.

mokinbird87 said:

thanks for the insight. How would you see resale value panning out between the e-Golf vs Golf TDI in like 5-6 years?

Click to expand...

Asking people here about value of TDI's used, when most of them are extremely liberal, green, and hate diesel and any ICE car in general is a folly. Go ask the folks over on TDIclub.com for more accurate valuations.

I"ve owned many TDI's. They never sold for cheap, they held their value well. As an example, I sold a 2002 Jetta GLS TDI, with real leather seats, not faux, in 2013 with 170k miles on it for $8000, in the Los Angeles area. It was pretty much box stock, although I had rebuilt all the rubber components in the suspension and put on a set of Koni Red shocks on all 4 corners in the past 24 months. I also had complete service records to show the maintenance was done on time. It was due for a new water pump, timing belt, tensionsers and rollers at 200k, about $300 in parts, but I always did all the labor myself on my TDI's for timing belts and water pumps.

I sold my 1998 jetta in 2008 with 260k miles on it for $4500., in 2008,It too had new suspension bushings and shocks on it, Bilstein gas, on all 4 corners. Easily capable of 600 miles per tank of fuel, still. No loss of MPG's yet, compression still good on all 4 cylinders, 165 psi, motor didn't burn a drop of oil, no make up oil between 10k oil and filter changes with Mobil 1 TDT 5w-40. I did replace the injector nozzles with European 110 HP versions at around 210k miles, more a want than a need.