DRESDEN, GERMANY – MAY 08: Employees work pose for a photo on a Volkswagen e-Golf electric … [+]
It’s not the flashiest electric vehicle on the market but it sure has been a steady sales machine. The VW E-Golf has sold over six figures worth of units worldwide since it was introduced in 2014. VW announced that it delivered the 100,000th E-Golf at its Gläserne Manufaktur factory in Dresden, Germany this week. That makes it one of the most successful EVs around, along with the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf. VW has sold most of its E-Golfs in Europe, where it’s been advertising the all-electric hatchback with the clever “Voltswagen” tag line. In 2018, VW delivered a total of 24,800 E-Golfs, with the EV’s most popular destinations being Norway, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the U.S.
In the U.S., the 2020 E-Golf is rated at 123 miles of total range. The E-Golf starts at $31,895 before any delivery fees or tax incentives for buying a plug-in vehicle. Since E-Golf hasn’t sold enough copies in the U.S. for VW’s tax credits to expire (like Tesla’s has), buyers who qualify for the full amount can still get $7,500 off that price.
VW’s German head of sales and marketing, Holger B. Santel, called the E-Golf the company’s “ambassador for e-mobility for more than five years,” in a press release announcing the 100,000th sale, but that title will soon move to another vehicle. Starting in 2020, the Gläserne Manufaktur Dresden will start building the ID.3, the first of VW’s next-generation EVs built on the company’s modular electric drive kit (MEB) platform that was designed specifically for electric vehicles. The ID.3 will be followed by other MEB-based EVs like the I.D. Buzz electric bus and the I.D. Crozz / ID.4 CUV that should be coming in 2021. The I.D. Space Vizzion electric station wagon follows in 2022.
“(The) delivery milestone of 100,000 vehicles is confirmation of the e-Golf’s success in fulfilling its mission,” Santel said. “It therefore plays an important role in the mobility turnaround for many customers and paves the way for the new ID.3.”
VW built 16,000 electric vehicles in Dresden this year, and series production of new VW EV’s will happen there and at VW’s plant in Zwickau, Germany. Recent reports say that the ID.3 will be 40 percent cheaper to build than the E-Golf thanks to more efficient battery cell and pack production through economies of scale. A VW exec said that dedicating an entire plant to electric vehicles allows for even more cost savings.
