Volkswagen has unveiled the all-electric Golf blue-e-motion concept in Berlin that is scheduled for market launch in 2013 alongside an Up blue-e-motion electric car.
Volkswagen said that in three years would also launch technically closely-related Jetta blue-e-motion. In the same timeframe, the Lavida blue-e-motion will also launch in China.
The Golf blue-e-motion concept being presented to German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be powered by an electric motor integrated in the engine compartment in front, and its power of 85 kW / 115 PS drives the car silently. Like all electric motors, the motor used in the Golf also outputs a very high maximum torque (270 Newton-meter) right from a stop. The result: more fun in zero-emissions driving. The electricity for driving the electric motor is stored in a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 26.5 kilowatt-hours.
A driving range of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) can be realized in the Golf blue-e-motion; the specific range depends on driving style and factors such as use of the air conditioning and heating system. This range meets the needs of most German commuters: According to the German Federal Statistical Office, 6 of every 10 people in the workforce commute by car – on average 45.8 percent drive less than 10 kilometers (one-way commute), another 28.1 percent between 10 and 25 kilometers and 16.2 percent over 25 kilometers.
The Golf blue-e-motion can also handle the driving ranges typically covered by many service providers. In short-distance driving, the zero-emissions Golf offers a sustainable solution to private users as well.
The Golf blue-e-motion – with its top speed of 140 km/h (85 mph) – provides ample power reserves so that less energy is consumed while driving, and it can even coast or “sail”. The Golf blue-e-motion even recovers kinetically generated energy by battery regeneration in this mode of driving.
Adapted to the vehicle’s architecture, the concept car’s battery unit is located in the bootspace (useful remaining cargo capacity: 237 liters), under the rear bench seat and in the centre tunnel (between the front seats). A separate air cooling system ensures a constant thermal environment in the battery compartment.
As in the E-Up concept car, an integral form of electric drive is used in the Golf blue-e-motion. Representing the core of the integral drive are the electric motor together with a transmission and differential. Energy management is handled by a high-voltage pulse-controlled inverter, which – along with the 12 Volt electrical system’s DC/DC converter and charging module – is integrated in the compact integral drive. The entire unit is relatively light and compact. The five-door and five-seat Golf blue-e-motion, for example, weighs just 205 kilograms more than a comparable Golf BlueMotion TDI with DSG – despite the fact that electric car batteries are known to be heavy and weigh 1,545 kilograms on the concept car.
Next year, Volkswagen will be testing the drivetrain and energy storage modules of the future Golf blue-e-motion with a fleet of 500 test cars – under all conceivable conditions. Essentially, the countdown to production launch of the future Golf blue-e-motion has already begun. The future is almost here, especially in Germany, because this is where one million electric vehicles will be on the roads starting in 2020 – this goal was resolved by the German federal government on August 2009 and is established in the “National Development Plan for Electric Mobility.” A long road lies ahead of us until 2020, especially since battery costs certainly need to be drastically reduced. However, another certainty is that a large number of the one million electric vehicles of the year 2020 will wear the VW badge.
Other vehicle that VW presents today in Berlin is the so-called Berlin taxi. It’s a study that is structurally identicalthat ti the recently presented Milano Taxi, which is based on the E-Up.
The Berlin Taxi with its top speed of 120 km/h is driven by an electric motor with a peak power of 85 kW (continuous power: 50 kW).
The motor is supplied with energy via a lithium-ion battery integrated in the concept car’s underbody. Thanks to the implemented battery storage capacity of 45 Kilowatt-hours (kWh) and the relatively low vehicle weight (1,500 kilograms), despite the battery, it is possible to cover distances of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) (per NEDC) depending on driving style.
The storage battery can readily be recharged to up to 80 percent of its total capacity in just over one hour, the exact time depending on the available recharging infrastructure and battery’s momentary charge state.
