VW Golf Blue-e-Motion revealed

Germany's Transport Minister and VW's Development Director with the VW Golf Blue-e-Motion

In a new take on the BlueMotion moniker Volkswagen has revealed the VW Golf Blue-e-Motion which is – you’ll never guess – an electric Golf. Quelle surprise.

The Golf Blue-e-Motion is a foretaste of VW’s aims to launch the electric Golf on an unsuspecting public in 2013 and was revealed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who managed not to get herself in the photo-op above).

The electric Golf gets a 115bhp electric motor under the bonnet which produces 199ft/lbs of torque from the off. The batteries manage to encroach on the boot space somewhat (boot space drops by a third) and are also under the back seat and under the central tunnel. And all those batteries add a not insignificant 450lbs compared to a regular Golf BlueMotion TDI.

The Blue-e-Motion has a range of 90 miles (probably 60 in the real world), takes 11.5 seconds to get to 60mph and tops out at less than 90mph.

VW are planning on building a fleet of 500 cars to act as a test fleet and are planning a launch in 2013. But why?

It’s going to cost a heap more than the diesel engined Golf BlueMotion to buy. It will have a range so small it will only be any use in urban areas. Its zero emissions at point of use probably equate to an overall carbon impact similar to the BlueMotion. And it’s slower. And there’s less room in the boot.

And the one big plus – running costs – will go out of the window as soon as there are more than a handful of electric cars on the roads and governments start to tax electricity for transport in the same way they tax diesel and petrol.

We’re not Luddites. But really, what’s the point?

By Cars UK