Buying a used Golf-E range question

[ort84]

Hi everyone, hope I'm posting in the right place. I'm considering purchasing a used 2016 Golf SE with 18,500 miles on it. I know new these cars had a range of up to 83 miles. How do the batteries on these vehicles hold up over time? What range can I realistically expect from a car like this?

Thank you!

 

[JoulesThief]

That range depends on so many external variables. Mainly it depends on you, and your driving habits, how poor or good they are, at being efficient and conserving momentum. Also where you drive, and how fast you drive. Be the turtle, drive slow and far, be the hare, and you'll be stopped recharging all the time. Choice is yours.

 

[miimura]

Hi everyone, hope I'm posting in the right place. I'm considering purchasing a used 2016 Golf SE with 18,500 miles on it. I know new these cars had a range of up to 83 miles. How do the batteries on these vehicles hold up over time? What range can I realistically expect from a car like this?

Thank you!

There are two aspects to "range". One is the usable energy in the battery and the second is what you ask the car to do with it. The 83 or 84 miles is the EPA rated range of the 2015 and 2016 e-Golf cars. That is based on a prescribed test procedure and adjustment factors. As @JoulesThief alluded, your driving behavior can allow you to get significantly more or less than that range.

IMHO, as long as the car hasn't been mistreated or operated in an extremely hot environment, noticeable battery degradation is unlikely. I would not hesitate to buy a used e-Golf like I would a used Leaf. The Leaf has well known battery degradation issues.

 

[JoulesThief]

As an example of degradation and range of battery.... I drive the same way, every day, on surface streets, mostly blvds with a 40 to 45 mph speed limit. 26 miles round trip. Live in Los Angeles suburb.

When new, I would have the Guess -O -Meter showing 129 miles of range.

I've got a 4 year old battery now, effective exactly today, with 24.5k miles on my 2015 SEL. Guess-O-Meter now shows 113 to 115 miles on a full recharge.

You can get numbers like that if you have the skill and / or patience to drive like an old man. You'll get the 83 miles x about 0.88 if you drive a lot of miles in 4 years, and you drive the car harder than I do, which is almost everyone around here except a few others.

This is a BB where driving enthusiasts hang out, and they drive their cars harder and more abusively than most. So you have to take that into consideration too.

Driving an electric car, for some, like me, is about energy management. You don't really have a lot of energy stored in that 700 # battery. How you manage what little you have has a big effect on how far you can go before recharging. Much like a smartphone. Are you a gamer? A power user?, a Textoholic? Or do you just use it to make phone calls? Do you time out your lighted screen ASAP? All of those uses affect how long your battery lasts in a smart phone.

 

[zanzabar]

Batteries seem to be holding up very well in general.

I have the car you are looking at: 2016 SE bought used with 26k miles. My range ranges from 95 miles in city driving in Eco+ mode, to 70 miles of highway driving in Normal mode, to 35 miles for a full day of Autocross.