What’s hot?
- Smart looking and unobtrusive, doesn’t looks any different from other Golfs
- Exceptionally quiet compared with a conventional car
- Quick off the mark and a lively performer, 0-62 mph in 10.5 seconds
- Smooth and civilised, with single-speed auto gearbox
- Full five-seater family car that needs no expensive trips to a filling station
- Can be re-charged by plugging into a household socket
- Fast charging, where available, can replenish the battery pack to 80 per cent capacity in only 35 minutes
- The battery pack has a warranty for eight years or 100,000 miles
- Braking regeneration helps recoup some energy to put back into the battery pack
- There’s no company car tax – at least until 2015. And even then the benefit in kind will only be 5%
- Ultra low running costs
What’s not?
- The price. That will be £25,845 please, Sir or Madam, and that is after the £5,000 government grant has already been subtracted – but if you are a company car driver the benefit in kind company car tax will be based on its P11D value – ie the full amount
- Range anxiety. It is said to be capable of 118 miles between charges, but even in good conditions 90-100 miles is more realistic – and that could be quite a bit less on a very hot summer day, a very cold winter one, or in hilly terrain
- Charging time. Re-charging takes 13 hours using a domestic three-pin socket, and eight hours via a 3.6 kW charging unit wallbox connected to a domestic electricity supply
- Battery life. Eventually the battery pack will need replacing, although you should be ok for a decade or so
- Incautious pedestrians. The car is so quiet that they may not hear you coming, so you have to be alert to the risk of one stepping out in front of you
- Wind noise. With no engine, you are more aware of air passage over the bodywork, and also road rumble from the tyres
