Last units of VW e-Golf reach USA customers in 2021

VW announced that in the first quarter of 2021, it sold 22 units of the now-discontinued VW e-Golf in the USA. These belong to the last remaining units of the electric hatchback, which has found a place in history. Compared to 2020, this is a 94 percent drop in sales.

VW USA Q1 2021 sales (1)
Image: Volkswagen of America

The last VW e-Golf rolled off the production line at the Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent Factory) in Dresden, Germany, on December 23, 2020. Soon after, it emerged on the media that VW would turn its focus towards the ID.4. The e-Golf was manufactured additionally at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, until summer 2020.

The e-Golf had its best year in the USA in 2019, with over 4,860 units sold. Volkswagen launched the e-Golf in 2014, initially making it in Wolfsburg. U.S. sales started in 2015. In March 2017, it started producing it in Dresden to meet the high demand. In all, the company produced 1,45,561 units in a period of more than seven years. The Dresden facility rolled out 50,401 of these units.

Video Source: youtube.com/VWS Glaeserne Manufaktur

With the VW e-Golf phased out, the Transparent Factory in Dresden served as a production site for the VW ID.3, from the end of January 2021. It will be shifting focus to the ID brand to meet its internal electric car targets (1.5 million electric cars annually by 2025) and the ID.3 is viewed as the Electric Golf’s successor in Europe.

The VW e-Golf was introduced in 2014 and received a facelift in 2017, and packs a 35.8 kWh battery that powers a 100 kW (136 PS)/290 Nm electric motor with a range of up to 300 km per charge (WLTP). The battery can be charged to 80 percent in 45 minutes with a 40 kW DC charger and comes with an 8 years/160,000 km warranty. A full charge with a regular 3.6 kW charger takes 10 hours and 50 minutes. The car can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.6 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 150 km/h.

Volkswagen of America Q1 2021 sales e-Golf
Sales of VW models in Q1 2021. Image: Volkswagen of America

Features on the e-Golf included 16-inch alloy wheels (“Astana”), LED headlights, LED daytime running lights, LED tail lights, 9.2-inch Discover Pro flagship infotainment system, Air Care Climatronic two-zone automatic air conditioning system, and heated windscreen. Optional features included Active Info Display that instructs the driver to ease off the accelerator pedal whenever it feels there’s no need for additional power and a heat pump that optimizes the car’s range in cold weather conditions by up to 30 percent.

According to a study by CompareTheMarket, the e-Golf had the strongest residual value in the electric car market of the UK with an average depreciation of 25.1 percent after a 3 year period. It nudged past the Tesla Model S 75 which came in second with 26.7 percent depreciation, even as rivals like the Nissan Leaf and Kia Soul lost over 50 percent of their value in the same period.