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