Updated VW e-Golf will have maybe 124 miles of real-world range

A bigger, 35.8-kWh battery but the same, slow 3.6-kW onboard charger. Those are the under-the-metal specs for the next-gen VW e-Golf, according to Electrive.net. The pack will have 48 percent more capacity, which should be enough for a real-world range of around 124 miles. That's higher than we expected when we talked to VW about this a few months ago and should give people another reason to check out this excellent EV if they were previously hesitant about the car's official rating of just 83 miles of range.

The good news is that we don't have long to wait to see this improved electric VW. The 124-mile e-Golf is supposed to arrive this fall in facelifted form, according to Electrive. The extra battery capacity will come from better li-ion cells, which are 37 Amp-hour compared to the current 25 Ah, as previously reported. Even with the larger pack, the new e-Golf will keep its current 3.6-kWh onboard charger.

Whether or not an extra forty or so miles or range will be enough to lure in shoppers is an open question. It sure seems like it should. As of the end of April, VW had sold 740 e-Golfs in the US in 2016 versus 685 at this point in 2015. That's an increase of eight percent, but we suspect that you don't improve a battery by 50 percent to be happy with single-digit sales increase. The big question, of course, will be if VW decides to charge anything more for this unquestionably better EV.

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