Electric Golf cart

Volkswagen is amping up its future zero-emissions plans with the unveiling of the latest in a range of purely electric vehicles -- the Golf blue-e-motion concept.

Revealed in a May 3 ceremony in Berlin that was attended by German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, the blue-e-motion Golf is planned to hit the streets in 2013. It will follow the city-oriented VW Up blue-e-motion and the Jetta blue-e-motion.

Public availability in 2013 will be preceded by VW unleashing a fleet of 500 Golf blue-e-motion test models in 2011 to suss out issues such as practicality, user friendliness and, undoubtedly, realistic range expectations.

As it stands at present, the Golf blue-e-motion is powered by a front-drive 85kW/270Nm electric motor fed by a 26.5 kilowatt-hours lithium-ion battery that is said to give a range of as much as 150km, as well as a 140km/h maximum speed. Claimed zero to 100km/h figure is 11.8 seconds.

Naturally the electric Golf is able to capture kinetic energy produced when braking, feeding charge back into the battery. It is also able to "coast" when the driver's foot is taken of the accelerator pedal.

The battery sits in the space under the boot floor, rear seat and centre tunnel, its temperature controlled by a separate air cooling system. Boot capacity is reduced to 237 litres.

VW says it has managed to contain weight increases: The blue-e-motion is claimed to weigh only 205kg more than a comparable Golf BlueMotion TDI with DSG transmission.

According to VW "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."

Issues, of course, remain: One is the cost of the lithium-ion batteries, which VW says needs to be "drastically reduced," not to mention the significant global issue of how the power used to charge the batteries is produced. Coal-fired electric power plants for example only shift the source of the emissions.

VW, like a growing list of car-makers, has already embarked on the low emissions trial -- in many places except Australia -- with the now on sale Touareg hybrid that will be followed in 2012 by a hybrid Jetta and in 2013 by a hybrid Passat.

The company is also actively pressuring for added support from the German government, with the chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Prof. Dr. Winterkorn saying it needs to "Proactively support the introduction of new technologies. With regard to electric mobility, the current temporary exemption of E-cars from taxes is inadequate."

The company line is that "Volkswagen wants to use bestsellers such as the Golf to take electric vehicles out of their niche model status and to become the market leader for a new type of sustainable mobility by 2018."

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