Test drive Volkswagen e-Golf and Golf GTE

A colleague was driving too fast on an empty highway in Mallorca, was caught by the police and was immediately deported to Russia. And who said electric cars and hybrids are boring?

“Your colleague is unlucky,” one of the organizers threw up his hands. "He won't be able to come to Spain soon." And then he continued to paint the merits of the updated Volkswagen Golf GTI performed by Performance. However, to begin with, we had to drive a car with a slightly different abbreviation, but the degree of expectations was also great, because the hybrid Golf GTE is almost a GTI, only more complex and economical. I really wanted to think that the story about the deported journalist was just a tale in order to cool down the ardor of the testers at least a little. The warm sun, winding lanes of Spanish Mallorca and a number of very fast cars are not conditions for the most law-abiding driving.

The Spaniards themselves, as it turned out, rarely look at the restrictions - on the highways they bite into the rear bumper, if you drive a little slower than the generally accepted "+20 km / h", and on local lanes they undoubtedly cut turns with access to the oncoming and rush with a pedal in the floor outside the settlements. So we have a VW Touran compact van hanging in the rear-view mirror, although we were not driving very slowly either.

The challenge is accepted - we let the Spaniard ahead, who obviously knows the local roads better than we do, and sit down on his tail. Diesel, judging by the nameplate, the Touran goes very quickly and without any rolls, clearly demonstrating to us all the advantages of the corporate MQB platform. But our chassis is no worse, so we are not lagging behind, losing slightly in unfamiliar closed corners and easily overtaking the monocab on straight lines. The Golf GTE, despite being three quintals heavier than the standard car, is just as light, understandable and responsive.

In such an active mode, the hybrid is genuinely good and, most importantly, does not make you think about how the power plant is working now. Unless the sound of the turbo engine does not excite the blood too much - outside it is not audible at all, and inside the pseudo-racing sound is synthesized by the audio system, but the slight whistle of the electric motor reminds that the car is still a secret. Anyway, as long as there is some kind of reserve in the batteries. The duo of engines sings in unison, and there is no need to think about which of them is helping whom, and in which gear the DSG gearbox works.

The GTE button makes the simposer sound a little meaner and lowers the box, but essentially changes little. The highlight of the hybrid is that the electric motor pulls out where the gasoline gets weaker and vice versa. In general, there is a feeling of strong traction in the full rev range.

The Spaniard could not pull away, slowed down to the permitted speed and obediently turned off the road on his family business. The Golf GTE calmed down just as quickly by eliminating the petrol engine. It turned out that you can drive up to 130 km / h on electric traction, but only if you manually turn on the E-mode. The charge is enough for about 30 km of run, and then the electronics will return the internal combustion engine to the case. In standard mode, the car now and then juggles motors, and does it as delicately as possible - so much so that the operation of the gasoline engine can only be determined by a slight increase in the background noise. The engine power and the traction battery current here work in a single bundle, and the voltage increases in proportion to the speed and the degree of deflection of the arrows on the instrument display. Hybridity is felt only in the brakes - when you press the pedal, the GTE first brakes through recuperation, and only then connects the hydraulics. You get used to it quickly.

The updated Golf GTE did not become more adventurous, because its power plant has not changed. The new 1,5-liter turbo engine went only to the regular Golf, and the seven-speed DSG - to all other versions, except for the hybrid. It also brought a multi-mode dashboard display and a large-size full-touch media system with advanced navigation. The peculiarity is that the navigator now gives hints on the driving style, focusing on geodata, for example, ascents, descents or turns. The hybrid can automatically switch to electric mode in the city center or use recuperation more diligently on descents. It all works unobtrusively - the car does everything in much the same way as a responsible driver would do it himself.

There are even fewer external changes: the rear optics are only diode, like the front. All extra modifications of the family are now equipped with LED headlights instead of xenon ones. This, by the way, is not only more technologically advanced, but also more economical. With new optics and flared bumpers, all the Golf specials look the same. Except for the sedate e-Golf with its slightly sleek grille and six brackets for LED lights, all other versions differ in detail. Make a note: the GTI has a red stitching on the grille, which now continues into the headlights. GTE has the same, but in blue. The Erka radiator is cut with a chrome strip, and the lower trapezium of the air intake is inverted.

A purely electric Golf against this background looks the most harmless, and in all respects it is. After the groovy GTE, it is calmness itself, and even seems sluggish on the track, although in the city traffic it is definitely more convenient than any gasoline and diesel version. But it was he who got the most significant set of modifications. First, there is a modernized 136 hp power unit. instead of the previous 115 horsepower. Feels have changed a little, but in numbers it has become more beautiful: the electric car is now gaining "hundred" in less than ten seconds. It's nice, but much more important is a more capacious battery: 35,8 versus 24,2 kWh and an optimistic 300 km of mileage on a single charge according to the European NEDC test cycle.

Of course, the declared 300 km is a pipe dream. Even a corporate press release in the lines of the specifications, in addition to the calculated one, also gives a "practical result" of 200 km, which already looks like the truth. If a fully charged car promises a balance of 294 km on the dashboard, this means that you will lose the first 4 km while driving through the parking lot, another hundred - within the next ten minutes of your usual drive, and then everything will depend on your personal temperament. The fact is that after the test route 90 km long, which we drove far from sparing modes, the electric car promised almost the same amount, so the promised 200 km seems quite real. I remember that before the modernization of the e-Golf in the conditions of Moscow traffic, it barely allowed to drive a hundred.

Inside, the e-Golf also looks calmer than the GTE. It has regular, not sports seats, and a familiar interior with blue accents. The pictures on the dashboard display are a little more intricate, but they are all about ecology - just a little, they immediately scare the driver with the crazy dance of the arrows. Among the new ones is the indicator of the available power, which in normal driving modes always shows the maximum, but quickly loses strength if you accelerate for a long time in the "gas to the floor" mode. This is a protection against overheating of the battery, the cells of which are now denser and still lack forced cooling. They recuperate quickly, literally in a few seconds of driving without full traction. And for those who greatly lack the rumbling of the internal combustion engine, there is an e-Sound mode and the same simposer-simulator of sound. Not our option: sitting in an electric car, it is much more pleasant to listen to the futuristic whistle of an electric motor.

The hot Golf GTI is the complete opposite of a hybrid and an electric car. This is where you want to turn the engine, if only for the sake of the exhaust, which so logically complements both the cool dynamics and the crazy "grip". The updated version engine develops 230 hp. instead of 220 hp, and in the Performance version - as much as 245 horsepower. It all comes to the front wheels, but not to say the GTI lacks all-wheel drive. On dry surfaces, the hatchback remains very tenacious, only occasionally spinning the wheels during a sharp transition from first gear to second, and the electronic differential lock, which is also a feature of the Performance version, helps well in corners. As well as more powerful brakes. The revamped GTI is a hatch with a character that's a pleasure to drive just for the sake of the ride.

It seems that you can't think of a more groovy car, but there is also a truly extreme Golf R in the range. It was not allowed on public roads, because 310 hp. and four-wheel drive could with equal probability be brought into the hands of the police and into a deep roadside ditch. The compact three-kilometer Circuit Mallorca race track is very similar to Myachkovo near Moscow, but it has elevation differences and a number of slow studs. But the Golf R rides along it by train - there is a whole breakthrough of traction, and too short sections between the pins prevent it from being realized, and it is only a very obvious provocation that it is possible to disrupt the car into sliding.

In the hierarchy of the extra-Golf family, the Erka is at the highest level, but, honestly, it is too good, redundant, and leaves the driver almost no opportunity to express himself personally. In this sense, the GTI is easier, but for those who want not just to drive, but to understand the car, experimenting with driving modes, the GTE is best suited. Perhaps it is he, and not too refined and "green" e-Golf can help a person get on eco-friendly rails, because it is a fast and economical car at the same time. Although 200 real kilometers of run of an electric car and acceleration to "hundreds" in less than 10 seconds - this is also more than serious.

Body type
Hatchback	Hatchback	Hatchback
Dimensions (length / width / height), mm
4270/1799/1482	4276/1799/1484	4268/1790/1482
Wheelbase, mm
2630	2630	2630
Curb weight, kg
1615	1615	1387
engine's type
Electric motor	Gasoline, R4 + electric motor	Gasoline, R4
Working volume, cubic meters cm
-	1395	1984
Power, hp from. at rpm (internal combustion engine + electric motor)
136 at 3000-12000	204 (150 + 102)	245 at 4700-6200
Max. torque, Nm at rpm
290 at 0-3000	350	370 at 1600-4300
Transmission, drive
Front	6th st. DSG, front	6th st. DSG, front
Maximum speed km / h
150	222	250
Acceleration to 100 km / h, from
9,6	7,6	6,2
Fuel consumption, l (city / highway / mixed)
-	1,8 (comb.)	8,7/5,4/6,6
Electric power reserve, km
300	50	-
Cargo space, l
341 – 1231	272 – 1162	380 – 1270
Price from, $.
ND	ND	ND