Jonny Smith drives the 2017 plug in hybrid VW Golf GTE and he likes it. Patreon: www.patreon.com/FullyChargedShow Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u1xrNaTO1bI.html
To those of you dismissing PHEVs out of hand, consider this: 1. Model 3 is not out yet. The current selection of affordable, long range EVs is slim to none. 2. PHEVs can DRAMATICALLY cut gasoline consumption, because they really are EVs the vast majority of the time. Over the lifetime of my PHEV, over 95% of the miles have been driven in EV mode. Running the gasoline engine is very rare. 3. For the short term, PHEVs will have a price advantage over long range BEVs. That means people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford one, can consider an EV. 4. Many parts of the developed world still have poorly developed fast charging infrastructure. Even for drivers who can afford a BEV, it might not take them where they need to go. I'm seeing many purists display an irrational hostility toward PHEVs. I even saw one guy below say that it's better people buy a gasoline car than a PHEV. WTF?! A 0% reduction in gasoline usage is better than a 95% reduction?! Come on guys! Stop making the perfect the enemy of the good.
Trying to argue with that kind of people is a futility, their ignorance is just so overwhelming that an argument you use is just gone be a wasted effort.
PHEVs are ok. Better than no electric miles at all. However pure EVs are much better: simpler, cleaner, more reliable, better torque, smoother, quieter, truly zero emissions (especially powered from growing solar or wind), etc. Eventually, as battery costs continue to fall, EVs will be less costly to buy also. At that point, which is within a decade or two (maximum), it's game over fossil cars.
Feel the same, people just extrapolate their situation to that of others. In my country with no charging network and Tesla (dealership). I would not be able to get for example a Model 3 for at least half a decade. Looking at the experience of people here using plugin hybrids who are using their car 90% electric. So what would those people prefer for 90% of the world that are in the my situation? Continue to pollute at same rate for the next 5 to 10 years, or decrease fuel consumption by 90% tomorrow, at least until rapid charging infrastructure, price of electric car and availability arrive in the next 5 to 10 years.
yup, that was mostly a paper launch. real customers will get their cars nearer the end of the year. and they're not even building the base 35k model till november. all the first batches will be the 44k model. 5k for upgraded interior and another 5k for autopilot. it's gonna be close to a base model s pricing if you tick all the options!
The quality of this video is poor got most of his facts wrong...............didn't mention the real fuel consumption neither. Getting a bung from VW no doubt.
I love this dude! Everything in his reviews is so good. Talking manners and his voice fits perfectly. I could easily watch this just to relax after a long day
While not reelevant to the review itself, i appreciate the picture of the Reliant. I saw such a car in another video a few days ago, and almost went nuts trying to remember what it was. You fixed that. Thank you :) Good review. Nice to see Jonny again :)
@@kacperpawlowski1149 Since i run almost exclusively on electric, 300 MPG :) I do north of 4000 km on a 40 liter tank during the summer. When driving in hybrid mode, it's more like 35 mpg.
@@jmonsted wow thanks for a quick answer! Would you reckon this car is ok for motorway driving? Also, have you had any serious problems with it? My biggest concern is revving the cold engine on and off since it's a hybrid. Definitely not good for the engine. What's your experience?
@@kacperpawlowski1149 I did plenty of motorway driving in it with no issues. My daily needs just aren't motorway. The computer went nuts when the 12V battery got low causing a two week stay at the dealership (over the xmas vacation) and water got into the battery. The first part got fixed with VW eating half the cost, the second they ate all of it. Today, i would buy en EV. I love my GTE, but i would love an id.3 more. At the time, that wasn't an option (the only cheap EVs had crap range) but today there's plenty of EVs with the range i need, either on the market or coming soon. If you're looking at a hybrid, the sporty heritage of the GTE makes it a much nicer option than anything i was looking at in that price range.
@@jmonsted perfect thank you for the answer. I heard about the gtes having a problem with the water going into the batteries but heard that it was a 2015 model issue. Regardless though, looking at getting one second hand I will make sure that I get that checked! Thanks again.
Great review, very well thought out and produced. I personally can't wait for the all electric hot hatches because those are what I really want. An all electric Golf that does 200+ miles, 5 ish second 0-60, and is under $25000. Until that's available I'll happily drive my 2013 Leaf :)
I think I'm starting to be sold on the "plug in" hybrid concept. I was never really sold on hybrids when they first came out because they got about the same mileage as a Geo Metro I had in the 90's. The Golf GTE and the Chevy Volt, for example, are good looking cars with good performance. Either one would never leave EV mode considering how far I drive on a daily basis. It also would buy me time until a decent charging infrastructure is in place. That may be some time considering that I live in West Texas.
What is the 0-62 time on just electric drive? Does it pull as well as it does with the engine lit up? Or is it like running a full on EV in something like eco mode?
11:05, is it as safe in a rear-end collision if the gas tank is behind the rear axle? Higher likelihood of it puncturing. Getting about 56MPG real world average in a 2016 Prius hybrid (not the plugin version). Could get a Chevy Bolt that's 0-60 in a tad less than 7 seconds and all electric..
Do any of the current Golf or Passat (Both normal and GTE) have adaptive cruise control with roadsign/gps assist? (So it changes to the zone your entering)
I'm driving an Outlander PHEV here in Australia with 3.3L/100km (~71mpg) which is a brilliant fuel economy. I'm lucky I can do my commute in EV mode only and don't use any petrol at all. On longer journeys it has the parallel and serial mode as well as the pedals at the steering wheel to adjust the regen power. Brilliant to drive, lots of space and dual electric motors. We have only 4 EVs to choose from here in Australia thanks to total lack of government support (Model S and X, the Leaf and the BMW i3). Waiting for the Tesla Model 3 now which will come here early 2019 (hopefully).
Yes!! Real life driving MPG! More of this! Thanks Johnny, you're awesome =) and thanks for the conversions I looked at some weight figures at the GTE when it first launched and was surprised to learn that the triple clutch gearbox's weight was 98 kg (dry weight) and the engines was about 105 kg (also dry weight). Would you rather that the GTE was a plug-in hybrid like the Opel Ampera and Bmw i3 is with the petrol unit not connected to the wheels? I think I would want it to be, but I don't know it it would spoil it's character
I really enjoy these videos and it's wicked to see Jonny reviewing cars again, great stuff. He should do all of the in depth car reviews or have Robert in the passenger seat with him too. I don't agree with the Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode sound effect though, I love Depeche Mode and that song so it doesn't =P I think petrol hybrids can be brilliant but I'm really not interested in flappy paddles at all especially in a sporty feeling car, takes so much of the fun and involvement out of driving, that's one of the main things I'll miss when every car goes hydrogen or plug in electric, that and the noise from a lot of petrol engines, so cool. It seems very quiet when driving. I like the music that's used through this video, nice and chilled out. I can't wait until all those shitty toxic diesels are scrapped and melted down for something more useful, dog shit bins and so on, such a bloody shame there's no urgency though, 2020 is over 2 years away.
The GTE is the perfect mixture between sporty and ecomonical. And it solves one of the grypes I have with EVs and hybrids and that's the fact that most of the have soulless CVTs. As for the VW factory being the 2nd most visited attraction in Germany, if you are a petrolhead (like me), you would never want to leave. There is a museum of car history which goes on for 6 or 7 floors, there is a building for every brand in the VW Group, there is VW's delivery center, there is a off road course and of course the factory itself.
BMW and Hyundai hybrids also have the clever GPS technology. And if I remember correctly, the BMW also takes immediate traffic into account and saves electric range for traffic jams. I do agree, it is amazing, and relieves people who don't care about driving from constantly having to switch the modes to get good mileage.
Great high quality episode Jonny! I'd be tempted to get the Golf GTE if not for the fact that in a few years we'll such a massive array of EVs to choose from. I miss my TDI - it was stinky, but chipped it went like stink ;)
In case someone is interested how sporty the GTE really is - Nordschleife Onboards here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YGmW7KCc4uY.html | ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8LBO6YxLdJc.html
interesting... *predictive hybrid mode*... is there any existing android or iphone app which would show me upcoming road signs and turns avg. speeds to let me better shift gears?
Excellent review. First time I've heard someone get the point that your mpg on your test run is not the same as the mpg you'd get if you live near work etc. I have an old style gte and have got 1000 miles on a tank. Will perhaps have to look at upgrading to the new one as I like the new lights and dash screens
Absolutely brilliant review. Well-explained, highly cogent content. I love Bobby dearly, but Jonny is a huge upgrade in actual automotive journalism. Perhaps Bobby gets to focus more on cleantech and new tech? Hopefully VW will do their usual great job on the upcoming, new-platform, pure EVs. If so, they may be excellent cars. For example, eGolf, while based on the fossil car, is a very good pure EV. It's still very much Golf-like, which is a good thing indeed.
The price of a tesla model 3 when that comes out, which will have about half the range. But would be all electric and will be cheaper to tax (free) cheaper to service.
Pure EVs are so simple that there is very little maintenance on them. Mostly rotating the tires and eventually changing fluids like brake fluid after several years.
Love the pop out reversing camera. Saves it getting dirty like the one on my car does. For people knocking PHEVs, they have a very valid place in the company car market. It would be great if Fully Charged started showing the Benefit In Kind costs to us company drivers. My "commute" is 179 miles each way, making a full EV not yet truly viable. But hybrids and PHEVs make a lot of sense for drivers like me.
I live in a very small town. A round trip to work and back is seven miles. I can drive to the biggest grocery store in my town and back home, and only drive eight and half miles.
I recently ordered a new car and I collect it in a couple of day time. I only travel about 3600 miles a year now, but most of it consists of journeys of 100 - 220 mile round trips, mainly motorway. I have changed from a 2.0L diesel engine (euro IV) to a 1.2L turbo petrol 3 cylinder engine. The demonisation of diesel car owners and the relatively low mileage meant the extra cost of a 1.6L diesel auto (euro VI) was out of the question. Ideally, I would have loved to have purchased an electric vehicle, such as the Hyundai IONIQ or the Toyota Prius, but neither had the range I wanted (150 miles in the worst conditions). Additionally, such cars are priced beyond the amount I wished to pay for a vehicle which will only travel the said 3600 miles a year. I did not consider a hybrid as most of my journeys are at speeds of 40 mph or more, so the electric motor would just be extra weight. I did consider a plug in hybrid, but again, too expensive, limited boot space and no spare wheel. As a puncture magnet, I feel a full size spare is essential (70 miles on a motorway at 50 mph on a space saver does not appeal to me). Fortunately, my new car has a full size spare. One other concern I have with respect to electric and PHEV's is this. In the UK we are getting very close to critical in our National Grid capacity during the winter months. Various governments have shied away from nuclear until now. But what happens should we start getting brown outs, for instance?
Great package, would be great here in Canada where we have real distance driving as part of daily life. I assume it’s too expensive though for most Golf customers and sells here as the Audi e-tron in bits and pieces.
I can see a lot more plug in hybrids appearing because manufacturers can carry on with servicing all the oily bits and the money that brings in. The salesperson can make the customer feel green and encourage the thinking that a pure EV will never be practical for someone doing longer trips (and one long trip per year is enough to convince most people). I am hoping the Tesla Model 3 will start to blow this thinking out of the water (I am less hopeful the Leaf will because it will still have a max 50kw charge rate for the foreseeable future, I have a Zoe ZE40 and it is great but not much good if I did a lot of 200 mile plus journeys - which I don't)..
Plug in hybrids are a nice stepping stone to a fully electric car with 300-400 mile range sometime in the future. My daily commute is 40 miles and so I would like min 50 mile electric range. We have 2 cheap Honda Civics at the moment and I would rather keep one of them for longer journeys and buy a completely electric car such as the upcoming 200 mile Nissan Leaf for my daily commute. However, if I could only have 1 car in our household a plug in hybrid would be the best solution.
Damn it Jonny, you are really good at this shit, who knew! ;) That GTE looks really good, I'd buy that if I did alot of driving and maybe go on longer drives, but since we are getting more 400 kms capable EV cars now like the Zoe and what not, hopefully a fully electric Golf too that does that, I dont see my self getting this. If you go 400 km's in one stretch you surely will stop for a bite to eat for 30 - 40 minutes and thats usually enough to fill it up. Chargers are put up all the time now and in 2 - 5 years it will be common place everywhere and cheap too. I hope in 10 - 15 years solarpanels will become widespread even on larger houses, and in cities! And I live in Sweden where electricity are both mostly clean and also very cheap. :) We just need abit more chargers, not sure how good it is atm, suspect its fairly good but bet it could get better.
