Friday, February 24, 2012

Volkswagen ships first electric Golf to California

Volkswagen ships first electric Golf to California:

Volkswagen showed CNET its eGolf electric car at its Electronic Research Lab.


(Credit:
Wayne Cunningham/CNET)


An initiative by the German government calls for 1 million electric cars on its roads by 2020. To meet that goal, Volkswagen began a development program for its own electric vehicle, the eGolf. CNET looked at the first eGolf to be shipped to Volkswagen's Electronic Research Laboratory in Belmont, California.


This eGolf is the first of 20 that will be used for testing in the United States. Overall, Volkswagen will build 500 of the vehicles for testing its new electric powertrain. This drive system is pretty conventional by today's standards. It uses an electric motor to drive the front wheels and a lithium-ion battery to store energy. Along with plugging into the grid, the car recharges through regenerative braking.


The battery pack holds 26.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and the drive system output rates at 85 kilowatts. Volkswagen puts the car's range at 93 miles, and cites a 60 mph acceleration time of 11.8 seconds. Top speed is 87 mph.


Volkswagen eGolf electric car (photos)


1-2 of 8
Scroll Left
Scroll Right

No comments:

Post a Comment