The Charging Station

In looking into "fueling" our car, we found that the e-Golf comes with a 110V charging cable, but VW indicates that charging the car via this method could take up to 22 hours and only recommends this method if there are no other options. Of course, most people use these cars on a daily basis, so the 110V option does not make sense. We determined that we'd need what's commonly known as a stage two charging station. Technically this isn't a charging station, rather it is electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) that converts AC energy to DC for the car.

 

We again turned to plugincars.com, with their online guide for EVSEs: http://www.plugincars.com/quick-guide-buying-your-first-home-ev-charger-126875.html. They present several good alternatives, but we decided upon the Bosch EVSE based upon it being the one recommended by VW, and our already having some Bosch appliances.

This EVSE is approved for use with the e-Golf, Chevy Spark EV, Cadillac ELR, Kia Soul EV, and the Chevy Volt, and requires a 240V/30A circuit. 

 

John found out that there are two options for Bosch EVSEs - a hardwired option and an option that comes with a plug pre-fitted. The option with the plug already installed was approximately $400 more expensive than the hardwired option, and John found a very helpful website that showed us how easy it was to install a $20 dryer plug ourselves. So we decided to go with the hardwired model with the dryer plug. This guy also had to get additional wiring in his house for the circuit, as well.  http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/09/24/installing-level-2-charger-electric-car/. 

 

We already had the house wired for a 240V circuit going out to the garage when it was built, so we simply needed to call the electricians to connect the circuit to the breaker and replace the blank plate in the garage with a 4-prong dryer outlet. That cost us about $100 and didn't take much time at all. If you don't have a 240V circuit running to your garage, then there will be more cost involved to bring one out there.

Our sales rep did advise us to call the local Bosch rep to discuss installation and purchasing the EVSE. When we contacted the rep, we determined that they were not going to be useful to us since we already had the 240V circuit wired and John's research into the station options had already helped us make a decision. If you did not just build a new home and need your home wired, calling the local rep for whichever EVSE suits your car can result in useful information regarding electricians who can do the job and approximately how much it would cost.

 

The installation steps in the manual and on the website were easy enough to follow. The only things worth adding are that drilling the hole in the EVSE for the dryer plug took a fair amount of effort. To ensure you don't damage any of the internal components, we'd recommend having a piece of wood behind the plastic where you're drilling. It also might take a bit of effort to screw the wires connectors in.
With the dryer plug attached, all we needed to do was wall-mount the unit, which we finally did this past weekend. Most people loop the cable around the charging box, but we bought a hook to more easily wind up the cable. Here's a photo of our EVSE all set up.

Our mounted EVSE

We were planning on getting the Bosch EVSE with a 18' cord, as we had measured and figured that would be more than sufficient. However, when we were going to purchase the unit Amazon had a sale on both their 18' and 25' units. Since the reviews online said to get the longest cord you can, and the price for the 25' cord unit was now the same as what the price the 18' cord unit had been, we bought the unit with the 25' cord. This will give us the option to charge a second electric car or hybrid, if we get one, without having to shuffle the cars around.

Charging is pretty simple. To turn on the EVSE, there is a switch on the right side that turns the unit on and off. The e-Golf "gas cap" (volt cap?) opens up by pushing on it (it took us a while to figure that one out!), and the charging plug goes in.

Charge me up!

 

While the car is charging the light on the EVSE blinks green. When charging is complete, it changes to a solid green. If the light is amber or red, there's an issue! Red is, of course, a more serious issue than amber. If you want to stop charging before the car is fully charged, press the STOP button on the front of the EVSE.

 

Blinking green and charging, though you wouldn't be able to tell from the picture

 

When the car is done charging, turn off the EVSE and unplug the cord from the car. Plug the cord back into the EVSE, close the "gas cap", and you're good to go. With this EVSE, the car can charge in 4 hours or less. We find that with our ~37 mile commute it takes about two hours to charge up to 100% - much better than the time it would take with the 110V cable!

 

An important thing to note is that the car either needs to be unlocked or the fob needs to be within range in order to unplug the charger for the e-Golf. This would come in handy if you are ever at a public charging station that charges - if you walk away from your car and lock it, no one can come and unplug your car and charge up theirs on your dime. There are downsides to this, as you can find in other reviews online. However, none of these downsides apply to us at this time.

Choosing the Car

                  

Our test drive car

So, how did we end up with the Volkswagen e-Golf? It actually started back in 2012, when John's Jetta was coming off its lease. We test drove several cars, including a VW GTI (Autobahn - the only trim that did not come with the plaid seats at the time). As fun as the GTI was, John decided to buy the Jetta off its lease and wait until we were done building our house in two years to get a new car.

Fast forward to 2014, when we began building our house. We asked the electricians to put a 240V circuit in the garage for future hybrids/electric cars, so that we wouldn't have to worry about wiring the house after the fact. We had been keeping tabs on the hybrid/electric car market and what the offerings were and started to narrow down our choices.

This link here seems to be a fairly comprehensive list of the EV and hybrid options available in the US now or coming soon that John referenced while we car-shopped: www.plugincars.com/cars

We were able to cross off the Tesla due to price and BMW i8 due to it being RWD (not suitable for our climate). Some other cars we crossed off due to a low opinion of the brand (Toyota, GM, Kia). Some were also smaller than we were looking for, like the Fiat and Smart cars. By then, our list was quite small, but there were some good options in there.

In the fall of 2014, we went to test drive a Ford Fusion Energi. John's grandfather worked for Ford, so the employee discount made it worth looking into. The car drove like a larger car (not particularly responsive), and from what I recall the dashboard was a bit distracting, especially the regenerative braking display. It kind of turned into a game to see if we could get 100% of the possible energy converted over, and that's not really a good thing to do while driving. There was a diagram on the center console that showed how the electricity and gas engine were working in real time that was kind of cool, but it was just an interesting added feature. The trunk space was practically non-existant. Obviously, the decision to turn the Fusion into a hybrid was an afterthought and the car was not originally designed to hold the batteries in an economical manner.

John had heard that Volkswagen was bringing an electric car with an ~83-mile range over to the U.S. in late 2014, and since we needed to wait until our house was done to purchase anything, we decided to test drive the e-Golf once it arrived at a local dealer. 

 

Love the blue

In November, John found out that an e-Golf had arrived at a dealer near us, so we visited and took it for a test drive. The car drove really well (I honestly couldn't tell it was electric, apart from the lack of engine noise) and had a familiar feel due to owning a Jetta. It was a white car, and we hate white, but the sales person told us there would be other colors available soon. The displays are simple and not fussy, and they give you what you need. It didn't have the cool diagrams that the Fusion did, but again, it seemed more like a distraction. VW also used a chassis designed to accommodate a battery in the 2015 Golf line. Manufacturing the entire line is very simple and interchangeable, as they just have to swap out some things for others (batteries instead of a spare tire, plug instead of the gas intake, etc.). The frame, body, and inner workings are all the same, or very similar, across the entire line. This helps the e-Golf maintain a decent trunk space, which was pretty important to us. The back seats are also spacious (something common across the entire line), which was very appealing from a standpoint of wanting a smaller car, but not such a small car that the back seat is compromised.



E-Golf dashboard (top) vs. Fusion Energi dashboard (bottom)

 

We were sold on the e-Golf at that point due to the quality and familiarity, and just needed to wait for the house to be done. In January 2015 we went back into the dealer, and they were able to pull a non-white e-Golf off a boat that was coming in. We picked it up on February 14th, and that's where the adventure begins! More details on the car to come in separate posts.

Why did we go for a full electric car and not a hybrid? The biggest reason was because we know and trust the VW Golf. This is going to be our daily driver, and our round trip every day is just under 40 miles, so we figured if we could be even greener by driving a 100% electric car we might as well. We'll still have a gas-powered car for longer trips, but we won't be using it as much. I'll admit, we didn't drive a large sampling of electric and hybrid cars and we were a bit biased on the brand, but the e-Golf has features that were very important and appealing to us. With the Golf family being named the 2015 Motor Trend Car of the Year, I think we made a good decision. 

Stay tuned for more posts about the car, the wall charger, the driving experience, and the features.

-Lauren