Buying in Texas where no dealer service?

[EVInterestTX]

Hello,

I am interested in purchasing an e-Golf, but I called my local dealership in Houston, TX and they do not service the e-Golf. So my question is: should I risk it? Is the e-Golf reliable enough that I need not be concerned?

I found the maintenance schedule here:
https://www.jorgevw.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2018-VW-eGolf-Maintenace-Schedule.pdf

There are some minor high voltage battery items every 10k miles, but especially so at 20k, 40k, etc. Are there owners who can report their experience with maintenance and reliability?

This will be a second car for me, only to commute to work (25 miles round trip), so I won't be putting a lot of miles on it.

Thank you
-E

 

[f1geek]

I’m not sure how useful or necessary are those high voltage system checks. I am done going to the dealer after my car hits three years old, unless I have a problem only VW can address. I am glad I live where all VW dealers service e-Golfs, but only you can decide your comfort level.

You can read on this forum when there is a problem the car lets you know. I have 25k miles on my 2017 and had no issues, but that isn’t the info you are seeking. I do not know about e-Golf fleet reliability, but Consumer Reports rates BEVs as much more reliable than ICE cars, FYI, and they do reliability surveys.

25 mile round trip is an excellent use case for a low range EV.

What does VW corporate say about dealer e-Golf expertise in Houston?

One more comment about reliability and the maintenance schedule: if you keep your car’s charging port clean and be gentle when inserting and removing the charge plug, you can avoid a lot of issues. The one recurring issue I have seen on this forum is the failure of the charge port lock, which seems to be mostly preventable through good port hygiene and also with an occasional drop of silicone lubricant.

 

[EVInterestTX]

Okay, thanks very much. I saw similar sentiment from a review on Edmunds, where they stated "I really think VW dealers' service of E-Golfs are just money makers". I see that only five of the 17 standard maintenance items are related to the high voltage components, all of which are inspections and not actual work.

Thanks for the tips on the charging port as well. I am pretty meticulous with my cars, keeping them garaged and washed as much as I am able.

It seems that recharging time will be sufficient for my commute as well. One Edmunds reviewer stated that they were able to restore 60 miles in 11-12 hours, and another said they could restore 60 miles in 15 hours. That should equate to putting 30 miles back on in 6-7 hours, which would be perfect for my commute. Occasionally I run an errand which pushes my daily mileage to 40-50 miles.

I found a vehicle repair shop six miles north of my office, which does work on hybrid and electric vehicles. They have a page on their web site describing what they do - so that might be a fallback for me if I had an issue. I'll call them after the holiday.

The last item in the minor maintenance list states "Service interval display: Reset". I hope there isn't a service light that only VW can reset.

 

[f1geek]

No problem!

Some info for you about charging: The charger (device converting AC current to DC current to charge battery) is in the car. Most e-Golf's have a 7.2 kW on board charger while some have a 3. 6kW on board charger - be sure to verify which one is on your particular car. The car can charge at 240 V or at 120V and included with the car is a 120 V EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment), also known as the trickle charging station or granny lead. Some e-Golfs came with a 10 amp 120V EVSE and some came with a 12 amp 120 V EVSE. You will need to check which one is included with your particular car.

To figure out how long it takes to charge your car: Let's assume you keep the state of charger between 20% and 80% (a good practice). Assuming a 36 kWh e-Golf with ~32 kWh usable energy when new, that means if your car is at 20% SoC (state of charge), you need to replenish 60% of the pack capacity, or 19.2 kWh of energy. If you use the included trickle station at 10 amps, the charge rate is 120V x 10 amps=1200 Watts or 1.2 kW, so 19.2/1.2=16 hours. If you have a 12 amp trickle station, then your time is 19.2/1.4 = 14 hours. Of course if you have a 240 V 30 amp (or better) charging station at your home and set your car to charge at maximum speed, (assuming 7.2 kW on board charger), it will take 19.2/7.2=3 hours to charge 60% of the pack capacity.

Worst case, you will probably average 3 miles/kWh efficiency and may easily get 4 miles/kWh efficiency - depends how fast you drive, how much you use A/C or heat, etc. Assuming 3 mi/kWh, 19.2 kWh of capacity equate to 19.2*3=58 miles. At 4 mi/kWh you can get 77 miles out of the same amount of energy. Then you can do the math to see how many miles of range you are able to replenish into the pack.

I hope this makes sense.

In short, if your car sits all night long (12 hours) plugged into a dedicated 120 V circuit (so you don't trip the breaker and stop charging), you should be able to replenish 45 miles overnight while you sleep even at 3 miles/kWh efficiency and 1.2 kW trickle station. If you decide to charge to 100% every night, then you will have more of a range buffer every day, though if you can avoid keeping the pack at 100% for longer than a few hours (especially in very hot weather), you will extend the longevity of the battery pack.

You can reset the service interval light yourself.