Volkswagen’s foray into electric technology for their line-up was today unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show with the e-Golf and the e-UP!. Both models run purely on electricity while providing the comfort of having a range extender, much like the BMW i1 and the i8 both of which are also featuring at Frankfurt.
The e-Up! is powered by a 60kW electric motor that produces 210Nm of torque and gets its fuel from a 18.7kWh Li-ion battery enabling the car with a driving range of 161km. The car can accelerate from 0-100kph in 12.4 seconds and is limited to a top speed of 130kph.
The e-Golf on the other hand uses a more powerful 85kWh battery powered by a 24.2-kWh battery. This will allow the e-Golf to run 180km in one go and peak its speed to 140kph. The 0-100kph figure of the Golf is also improved over the Up! by two seconds.
Both cars have three modes of driving; Normal, Eco and ECO+ and four modes of regenerative breaking- D1, D2, D3 and B. The regenerative in its various stages will provide a form of breaking similar to that found on conventional engines while the driving modes varies electric motor power and torque levels and vehicle functions to obtain the best fuel economy.
The cars will do their duty on European roads from the Spring of 2014, but we will need to wait much longer as the market has not matured enough to make electric technology a viable one.
