Model Year 2018 announced for the US

[srue]

https://media.vw.com/en-us/press-kits/2018-e-golf-press-kit

Note, this 2018 model comes AFTER the Model Year 2019s were announced for the rest of VW's lineup. The apparent changes are only for the SEL trim: a bigger touchscreen, a slight improvement to ParkPilot, and the digital cockpit is now standard. Same size battery and motor.

 

[f1geek]

Interesting....Why did multiple dealers and VW USA tell me that there would be no 2018? Maybe VW decided to read their dieselgate consent decree with CA and decided to sell EVs instead of paying humongous fines?

Still no stock in northern CA. The next question is, when will these 2018 models arrive on the ground? And do they come with the "People's Warranty?" unlike the 2017s?

 

[srue]

Good questions. I really don't understand what they're thinking. Why announce 2018 so massively late? Why not just skip to 2019? Why all the misinformation about whether there will be a new model year?

The only think I can think of is that they didn't want to include all the 2019 enhancements (essentially much more of the safety suite is standard across 2019 models) in order to save on costs. That would include the People's Warranty, which is not mentioned in the release unlike virtually every other model press release. So I'm assuming it gets the old warranty, which sucks.

 

[f1geek]

I contacted VW PR about the warranty and got this reply:

"As the e-Golf has it's own 8-year/100,000 mile warranty on the battery, it is not included in the People's Warranty. "

Probably because the e-Golf is a loss leader for VW - it is partially hand made in Germany while all of the other Golf variants are made in Mexico, and VW needs to buy the most expensive parts - the battery cells - from an outside vendor. I'm guessing all of this costs more than VW likes, but it's good for us.

 

[miimura]

Good questions. I really don't understand what they're thinking. Why announce 2018 so massively late? Why not just skip to 2019? Why all the misinformation about whether there will be a new model year?

VW needs the Zero Emissions Credits to apply to the 2018 model year because that's how CARB tracks them. After they start shipping the Audi e-Tron in equivalent volume, they won't care so much about the e-Golf ZEV credits.

 

[johnnylingo]

After they start shipping the Audi e-Tron in equivalent volume, they won't care so much about the e-Golf ZEV credits.

Yep, and given that the new e-Tron starts at $74k I'd suspect they'll be getting much better margins off it.

 

[f1geek]

It makes sense, but that's not the reality. I read in the CA diesel cheat agreement that VW is required to sell two additional ZEVs beyond the e-Golf (three ZEVs in total). If VW kills off the e-Golf, it will have the privilege of paying large fines to CA.

 

[stevestrange]

Still no stock in northern CA. The next question is, when will these 2018 models arrive on the ground?

Looks like they are starting to arrive in SoCal, but nothing up in the Bay Area yet. Hoping they show up in the next couple of weeks. With half the range of the Bolt, I'm hoping they are willing to deal a bit down from MSRP, but with small supply, it's hard to say.

 

[JoulesThief]

Still no stock in northern CA. The next question is, when will these 2018 models arrive on the ground?

Looks like they are starting to arrive in SoCal, but nothing up in the Bay Area yet. Hoping they show up in the next couple of weeks. With half the range of the Bolt, I'm hoping they are willing to deal a bit down from MSRP, but with small supply, it's hard to say.

In my experience, VW doesn't budge on price until they are trying to get rid of cars with year end model sales, to make room for next years models. VW really doesn't care too much how well the sales of e-Golfs go in the USA... They hardly advertise them at all. Realistically, VW has 2019 models on dealership lots now, already, in other models. When electric cars with more range become more frequent, or if Tesla 3's are filling the demand for electric cars that are affordable right now, then, and only maybe then, will VW drop their prices due to lack of market demand.

I don't see a lot of posters here on this forum, so that somewhat tells me that demand for new e-Golfs is rather weak. I in no way see the SEL model as moving at the prices they are asking for it.