Jonny Smith Shares Thoughts On VW e-Golf EV After 20,000 Miles

He’s had the car since 2018 and the video is shot while taking the car back to VW.

By: Andrei Nedelea

Mar 31, 2020 at 3:14pm ET

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For the last two years and some 21,000 miles, automotive presenter Jonny Smith has been driving around in a Volkswagen e-Golf fully electric hatchback. In this video, he talks about his experience with the battery powered Golf prior to taking it back and trading it in for a newer all-electric Volkswagen.

Now we all know that the e-Golf is definitely not what one would call a long range EV; its trip computer may optimistically display that it can do some 175 miles (281 km) on a single charge, but according to Jonny Smith, he consistently got up to 140 miles (225 km) during the summer months (and driving the car carefully).

Other than that, the car is really just a Golf. This is good because it has a high quality interior, it’s comfortable, roomy and understated. And as with any Golf, it’s a classless car, or, in other words, people don’t know whether you’re a company executive or lower on the corporate ladder when you’re driving one.

Jonny’s video on the e-Golf is some 30 minutes long, but it’s definitely insightful for those looking to buy one of these cars second hand. And you can only get them used now because VW has not made a new version of the e-Golf, based on the eighth-gen model, because it will be replaced by the ID.3 when it finally comes out.