e-Golf

Make
Volkswagen
Segment
Hatchback

When an automaker introduces a new model, it often keeps the old one around until the new one arrives. Sometimes the two can even overlap, particularly after the new core model reaches dealers but additional powertrain or body-style variants have not. Yet the e-Golf is apparently disappearing quickly from Volkswagen's US lineup, before the question of the new Golf's future here is even answered.

According to CarsDirect, Volkswagen has stopped offering the e-Golf in the United States, even though it was originally slated to stick around at least part-way into the 2020 model year.

Part of the reason for the e-Golf's disappearance could come down to its EPA ratings, which downgraded the model's range from 125 miles for the 2019 model year to 123 miles for the 2020 model, and from a combined 119 MPGe to 113. Volkswagen of America spokesman Mark Gilles revealed that the change was due to the EPA's calculation methods, and not a change in the vehicle itself. But while Gilles confirmed that the US' allocation of e-Golfs has gone instead to Canada, he declined to confirm that the model has been dropped from the US market altogether.

As we went to press, the e-Golf was still showing as available on the automaker's US website.

The ultimate reason for the e-Golf's demise, however, may come down to Volkswagen's shift in strategy vis-a-vis its electric vehicles. The company is rolling out a new line of battery-powered ID models, and the lingering presence of the e-Golf may no longer play into that strategy - even if the new models have yet to launch here.

Last year VW sold 4,863 examples of the e-Golf in the United States - just ahead of the pricier Golf R (of which it sold 4,223).

In other words, the e-Golf represented less than an eighth of overall Golf sales, and barely more than one percent of the company's total sales.

The German automaker just revealed a new Golf GTE plug-in hybrid, alongside a new Golf GTI and GTD, ahead of what was supposed to be this year's Geneva Motor Show (before the show was canceled). Given Volkswagen's new ID strategy, we're not expecting a new e-Golf. But we're still keeping our shifter-fingers crossed that the new GTI (and eventual Golf R) will make its way here, even if the base Golf and other variants don't.