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Green Car Guide editor Paul Clarke, chief judge for the BusinessGreen Car of the Year Award 2015, can now reveal that the shortlist for this award has been announced and it includes the Volkswagen Golf GTE.
The Volkswagen Golf GTE is designed to drive like a Volkswagen Golf GTI but with an official combined economy figure of 166mpg and emissions of just 39g/km CO2.
The secret to the amazing economy figure is that the Volkswagen Golf GTE is a plug-in hybrid. This means that it essentially drives like a Golf with a 1.4-litre 150PS TSI direct-injection petrol engine and a six-speed DSG gearbox, but it also has a 102PS electric motor, powered by an 8.8kWh lithium-ion battery. The battery can be charged by plugging the car in to an electricity supply (taking just over two hours from a domestic wallbox), giving a range of up to 31 miles on pure electric power. The Golf GTE can also travel at speeds up 81mph on electric power.
For business drivers, the big benefit is that the Golf has just a 5% Benefit-in-Kind tax rate, as well as exemption from VED and the London Congestion Charge – in addition to the government paying £5,000 towards the car for you, resulting in a price of £28,035 after the Plug-in Car Grant. This is almost £2,000 cheaper than the Audi A3 e-tron, which costs £29,950.
The Volkswagen Golf GTE has maximum power of 204PS and maximum torque of 350 Nm – allowing the GTE to accelerate to 62mph in 7.6 seconds with a maximum speed of 138mph. It also has a potential range of 580 miles.
If you’re interested in the Volkswagen Golf GTE – or any other Volkswagen for that matter – visit Parkway Contracts, a specialist in all types of Volkswagen finance such as PCP, HP, Finance Lease & Outright Purchase, but in particular VW leasing and VW contract hire in the UK.
The other cars that appear on the shortlist for the BusinessGreen Car of the Year Award 2015 are the Audi A3 e-tron, BMW i8 and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The winner will be announced at the BusinessGreen Awards Dinner in London on 1 July 2015.
