Volkswagen Announces Pilot Program of 20 Electric Golf Prototypes for U.S.

Yesterday Volkswagen announced it is putting 20 electric E-Golf prototypes into service as rolling test beds for its budding electric car program. The test program will put 12 E-Golfs in the hands of Volkswagen employees to use regularly, and the other eight will undergo internal evaluation over a nine-month period beginning in April. To study the effects of climatic conditions on the electric cars, VW is spreading the program over three markets: Detroit, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The U.S. test phase follows similar programs for the E-Golf in Austria, Belgium, and France. The news comes on the heels of our recent confirmation that the production E-Golf, which will be based on the next-gen Golf platform, is coming to the U.S. in 2014. (This test fleet of E-Golfs uses the current Golf body and platform.) The nine-month test phase is scheduled to conclude at the end of this year—only a few months ahead of the production E-Golf's full launch in Europe but nearly a year ahead of its U.S. launch. That may seem like a short timetable for correcting any issues raised during the test program, but keep in mind that the E-Golf in its current form isn't exactly all-new. We first drove one of the prototypes nearly two years ago and even then came away impressed by its production-ready feel. The test phase's primary goal is to monitor drivers' charging habits, driving patterns, and energy use in the real world, in addition to the testing the vehicle itself. Volkswagen will install a 220-volt charging station in each test user's home and provide an iPhone with a dedicated app that can monitor charging status, gauge how much charging time remains, remotely start the vehicle, and adjust cabin temperature. VW says that data gleaned from the 20-car test will be used in the final development of future EVs, including the production E-Golf. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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