Volkswagen Ireland has cut the price of a new e-Golf by almost €5,000 as it wants to clear stock of the model before the arrival of the new ID.3 later this year. The price of a new, basic, e-Golf has now fallen to €27,895 inclusive of rebates and grants - down from €32,250 (and almost a €10,000 discount compared to the price asked for the e-Golf when it was originally launched).
Volkswagen claims e-Golf has more than enough range for commutes
"The e-Golf has all of the quality, ease of use and attractive design of the Golf, a car that has been synonymous with the family car segment, but with a fully electric drivetrain, with zero emissions and with a range of 231km, which is 14 times the average private car journey and more than 16 times the average Irish person's commute to work," said Volkswagen Ireland's Head of Marketing Mark McGrath.
That average commute is, according to the Central Statistics Office, just 14.7km daily.
Other grants and incentives
Volkswagen is also pointing out the other grants and incentives that electric car buyers can nab for themselves, including €600 towards the cost of a home charger, as much as €500 off the annual cost of using toll roads, and zero-rate Benefit In Kind (BIK) tax for business users.
There are, of course, entirely understandable worries about the future values of electric cars, not least in the case of the e-Golf, which is going to be replaced by the new ID.3, which has longer range, a more high-tech engineering package, and which will (by 2021) cost around the same.
PCP offer
Volkswagen's riposte to those worries is simple - buy an e-Golf on a PCP, with repayments starting at €319 per month.
"By getting your new e-Golf with a PCP product, there is a Guaranteed Minimum Future Residual Value of the car, so there is the assurance that you can be in the latest state of the art electric vehicle, and upgrade to the newer model without incurring as much risk in terms of residual (resale) values as the minimum value of the car is guaranteed by us," adds McGrath.
"With the e-Golf offering such great quality at a price point equivalent to a petrol or diesel model and with the assurance and value that the PCP product brings, this is a great way for customers to start their electric car journey, in a very familiar product. Plus, we can see from the CSO figures that many drivers are likely to vastly overestimate how far they drive in their daily commute so the e-Golf's WLTP range of 231km will be sufficient for most commuters' needs."