Volkswagen’s battery-powered Blue-e-motion Golf will not go on sale until late until late 2013 at the earliest, according to the company - and that's late enough to push it into the next generation of the iconic hatch.
VW has been wheeling out the Blue-e-motion for a series of drives this year - including an appearance at the recent Brighton to London Future Cars run. But engineers have admitted to Autocar that the EV family car is now sufficiently far off to make it likely that it will appear in the Mk7 Golf instead of the current Mk6.
It’s thought that an imminent platform switch is one of the reasons why the Nissan Leaf rival is so late to the market.
The current Mk6-based prototype Golf uses a 26.5kWh battery pack, marginally larger than that employed by the Leaf.
By using a three-stage (85kW, 65kW and 50kW) power output from the drive motor, VW says this prototype Golf can be coaxed into offering a range of as much as 90 miles. The driver can also select the amount of engine braking via paddle shifters.
