Volkswagen Ireland has cut €5,000 off the price of the all-electric e-Golf (and by almost €10,000, compared to the original launch price of the car), saying it is running out stock before the arrival of the much-anticipated ID.3 electric hatchback. The e-Golf now starts at a price of €27,895 after both the €5,000 VRT rebate and the €5,000 EV purchase grant from the SEAI are taken into account.
The higher grade Executive Edition e-Golf, brought in as a BIK special to attract business buyers keen on paying a zero-rate benefit in kind tax on their company cars, will start from €31,500. For those buying on finance, monthly repayments for an e-Golf start from €319 per month.
Is it still worth buying one, though? The ID.3 will launch in the Irish market this year, and eventually will be priced, for a basic model, at around €30,000. For 2020, though, only a limited number of ID3s will be available, and those will be high-end, high-price versions.
Still, with a one-charge range of more than 300km, and that for the version with the smallest battery, the ID.3 does seem like a giant technological leap forward over an e-Golf, which has a maximum possible one-charge range of 231km. That’s according to the WLTP economy and emissions test - in real-world conditions, the useable range is likely to be much lower again.
Still, Volkswagen is adamant that the e-Golf makes a useable family car, quoting figures from the Central Statistics Office that show that the average daily commute is far, far lower than the e-Golf's maximum range - just 14.7km per day.
“The e-Golf has all of the quality, ease of use and attractive design of the Golf, a car that has been synonymous with the family car segment, but with a fully electric drivetrain, with zero emissions and with a range of 231km, which is 14 times the average private car journey and more than 16 times the average Irish person’s commute to work,” said Volkswagen Ireland’s head of marketing, Mark McGrath.
Buyers can also get a grant of up to €600 to install a charging point at home, and can save as much as €500 per year on their road tolls.
For those worried about the potential effect on residual values for older-generation electric cars, such as the e-Golf, McGrath’s advice is simple - buy it on finance: “By getting your new e-Golf with a PCP product, there is a Guaranteed Minimum Future Residual Value of the car, so there is the assurance that you can be in the latest state of the art electric vehicle, and upgrade to the newer model without incurring as much risk in terms of residual (resale) values as the minimum value of the car is guaranteed by us,” he said.
“With the e-Golf offering such great quality at a price point equivalent to a petrol or diesel model and with the assurance and value that the PCP product brings, this is a great way for customers to start their electric car journey, in a very familiar product. Plus, we can see from the CSO figures that many drivers are likely to vastly overestimate how far they drive in their daily commute so the e-Golf’s WLTP range of 231km will be sufficient for most commuters’ needs.”
