The Volkswagen Golf (Mk7) is a C-segment car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen. It is the seventh generation in the Golf series and the successor to the Golf Mk6, and was introduced in Berlin on 4 September 2012, before a public launch at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, with European sales beginning in November 2012 for the 2013 model year.
Marketed in three-door and five-door hatchback, van, and estate forms, the Golf Mk7 shares the MQB platform with the third generation Audi A3, SEAT León and Škoda Octavia.
In November 2016, Volkswagen presented a facelift of the Golf Mk7. It was replaced in December 2019 by the Golf Mk8, which is built on the MQB Evo platform. Production of the e-Golf and the Golf Variant ended in mid-2020.
Overview
Compared with the previous generation, the Golf Mk7 has a more spacious cabin, with more shoulder room for front and rear passengers, more rear legroom, and a larger boot. It is wider than the Mk6, with a longer wheelbase.
Engine options at launch include 1.2 and 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engines, with and respectively, and 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesel engines, with and respectively. The 1.6 TDI BlueMotion Concept has a theoretical combined fuel consumption of and anticipated 85 g/km emissions.
Available body styles are three- and five-door hatchbacks (including high-performance Golf GTI and Golf R models), and a five-door estate (known as the SportWagen in Canada and the United States, first advertised in May 2015). Sales of the three-door hatchback were not as strong as previous generations,, and it was dropped with the launch of the eighth-generation model in late 2019.
A van version based on the three-door Golf was sold only in Ireland to commercial customers and was cancelled as corporations opted for the bigger Volkswagen Caddy.
At launch in the US market, Volkswagen also offered the Golf Sport model. Around 650 of these SE four-door models were built, equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission. Offered in either Pure White or Platinum Gray, the Sport model is visually enhanced with a body kit that includes a front lip spoiler, side skirts, a rear valence, a larger rear spoiler, and chrome exhaust tips.
The Golf went on sale in the UK in early January and was released in Australia in April 2013.
In Brazil, the Golf Mk7 went on sale in September 2013, only in the High-line and GTI trims, along with the Comfortline trim, which was made available from March 2014. All models were imported from Germany until 2015, when local assembly commenced.
When it was introduced in 2013, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award, the first time it was awarded to a European product.
New safety systems Proactive Occupant Protection Multi-collision brake system Adaptive cruise control (optional) Collision avoidance system (Front Assist) with City Emergency Braking (optional) Lane-keeping assistant (optional) Driver fatigue detection (optional) Traffic sign recognition (optional) Automatic parking system (optional) Rear assist camera (optional)
Safety ANCAP
Euro NCAP
Latin NCAP The Golf, in its most basic Latin American market configuration with 7 airbags, received 5 stars for adult occupants and 5 stars for toddlers from Latin NCAP 1.0 in 2014.
In 2017, it was awarded 5 stars for adult occupants and 5 stars for toddlers as well as the Advanced Award from Latin NCAP 2.0.
IIHS The 2021 Golf was tested by the IIHS:
+IIHS scores Small overlap front (Driver) Good Small overlap front (Passenger) Acceptable Moderate overlap front Good Side (original test) Good Roof strength Good Head restraints and seats Good Headlights Poor Front crash prevention (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) Superior Front crash prevention (Vehicle-to-Pedestrian, day) Advanced Child seat anchors (LATCH) ease of use Acceptable
Estate (Golf Variant, Golf SportWagen, and Golf Alltrack)
Volkswagen revealed the Golf estate/station wagon at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2013. It was marketed as the Golf Variant in Germany and Golf SportWagen in the United States and Canada, replacing the Jetta SportWagen nameplate previously used in the US.
The Golf Estate's load space volume was expanded from the 505 litres of its predecessor to 605 litres (loaded up to the back seat backrest), versus the 380 litres of the Golf hatchback. Loaded up to the front seat backrests and under the roof, the Golf Estate offered a cargo volume of 1,620 litres (versus the 1,495 litres of the Golf Estate Mk6). The rear seat backrests can be folded remotely via a release in the boot. Four petrol engines and three diesel engines were available, ranging from to for the standard petrol engines and to for the diesel engines. For the first time, the Golf Estate was also available as a "full" BlueMotion model, including revised aerodynamics. This model uses a 1.6-litre diesel engine producing 110 PS and a six-speed manual gearbox, and was expected to achieve a combined fuel consumption of 85.6 mpg (equivalent to 87 g/km of ).
The Golf R Estate used the same EA888 2.0L engine and all-wheel-drive system as the Golf R hatchback, along with other R-specific features.
The Golf Alltrack was introduced as a ruggedized version of the Golf Estate, with slightly raised suspension, body cladding, a front skidplate, and all-wheel drive, along with other minor mechanical changes.
The Golf SportWagen was available in S, SE, and GT/SEL (Trendline, Comfortline, and Highline in Canada) trim levels and used the same drivetrains as the standard Golf. The Golf Sportwagen was also available with all-wheel drive in the US and Canada beginning with the 2017 model year, using the 1.8L engine with either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed DSG transmission until it was discontinued in 2020. The AWD Sportwagen shared its drivetrain with the Alltrack, though it did not incorporate the other changes made for that submodel.
e-Golf The production version of the 2014 Volkswagen e-Golf was unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. On 14 February 2014, Volkswagen launched sales of the e-Golf in Germany. In Norway, the e-Golf became available for pre-order on 25 February 2014 for delivery in June 2014. On 11 March 2014, Volkswagen opened ordering for the e-Golf in the UK with deliveries began at the end of June. Production of vehicles destined for retail customers began in March 2014. U.S. sales started in selected states in November 2014 with a single SEL Premium model for the 2015 model year. Volkswagen stopped sales of the e-Golf in the UK in 2021.
Drivetrain and specifications
According to VW, the e-Golf has a practical all-electric range of , with an official NEDC cycle of , reduced to in the winter. Under the EPA driving cycle used in the United States, the 2015 e-Golf has a range of , and combined city/highway efficiency of (miles per gallon petrol equivalent). Real-world experience showed range varied between , depending on the weather and use of climate control, with an average efficiency of 3.7 mi/kWh over of driving, mostly within the city. A heat pump was available as an option to reduce the power consumed by the heater in cold weather.
The high-voltage traction battery has a storage capacity of 24.2 kWh, composed of 264 individual cells arranged in 27 modules of 6 or 12 cells each. It has a nominal voltage of 323 V. Overall weight of the entire vehicle, including driver, was , of which was the battery. In November 2013, VW announced the e-Golf with a liquid-cooled battery. However, the "liquid-cooled" description was removed from subsequent press releases in early 2014. Volkswagen dropped active thermal management for the battery pack because internal testing with Mk6 e-Golf prototypes showed high ambient temperatures did not affect battery performance. The smaller battery in the hybrid petrol-electric GTE does use active thermal management, but that model is positioned as a hybrid version of the sporty GTI, rather than the e-Golf's equivalence as an electric version of the regular Golf Mk7.
The 2014–2016 model year e-Golf has a traction motor (designed EEM 85) and single-speed gearbox (EQ 270) with an output of / in "Normal" mode; using "Eco" and "Eco+" mode reduces power / torque output to / and / , respectively; Eco+ also disables the HVAC system. In addition, four different levels of regenerative braking can be selected. The standard on-board AC charger has a maximum input power rating of 3.6 kW; as an option, DC fast charging using a Combined Charging System (CCS) connector is available, accepting DC power at a maximum rate of 40 kW. The DC fast charging option also upgrades the on-board AC charger to 7.2 kW.
Top speed was electronically limited to . Externally, the e-Golf can be distinguished from its fossil-fueled Mk7 counterparts by full LED headlamps and the deletion of the exhaust outlet.
Upgrades in 2017
The 2017 version (Mk7.5) has an improved battery pack with a greater storage capacity of 35.8 kWh, giving a range of on the NEDC scale and an EPA rating of . In addition, the onboard charger was upgraded and accepts AC power at up to 7.2 kW as standard; DC fast charging (with CCS connector) was optional on the SE trim, and made standard for the SEL Premium and Limited Edition trims. Traction motor output also increased, to and , reducing acceleration time from 0 to to 9.6 seconds. Real-world testing indicated a full charge would provide a range of . For the 2020 model year, due to a change in the EPA testing procedure, the e-Golf was re-rated to a range and the combined efficiency rating dropped from .
The e-Golf was the last hatchback version of the Golf Mk7 produced in Europe, with production continuing until late December 2020 due to high demand, well after other powertrain variants which were discontinued in 2019. The successor ID.3 had been launched in 2019 and took over the e-Golf's Transparent Factory production line in Dresden, starting at the end of January 2021. In the United States, the production allotment of 2020 model year e-Golfs was diverted to Canada.
In China, domestic e-Golf production by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture supplanted vehicles imported from Wolfsburg, starting in 2019. This helped VW meet the electric vehicle quota imposed by China: starting in 2019, manufacturers that sell more than 30,000 vehicles per year must ensure that ten percent of those are electric. Chinese production of the e-Golf by FAW-VW at the Foshan plant continued into 2021 with two models, the Golf·Pure Electric Motor and Golf·Pure Electric Motor Pro; the Foshan plant, which produced MQB platform vehicles from its opening in 2014, was retooled to add a MEB vehicle production line and the first ID.4 CROZZ vehicles began production at Foshan in late November 2020.
Spektrum Program
From the 2017 to 2020 model years, Canadian-market e-Golfs could be optioned with one of 40 custom-order paint colours offered as part of Volkswagen's Spektrum program at a cost of roughly $3,000 CAD. A total of 104 e-Golfs were ordered with a Spektrum-program colour.
Golf GTE
The Golf GTE plug-in hybrid is driven by two power sources: a 1.4-litre TSI direct-injection petrol engine and a electric motor. Together, they combine to produce power of and of torque, with a theoretical range of . Using the electric motor alone, the GTE is capable of speeds of . With the TSI engine, the Golf GTE can accelerate from 0- in 7.6 seconds and reach a top speed of . The Golf GTE shares the basic powertrain hardware as the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, but the software controls are different. The Golf GTE also shares the same plug-in hybrid powertrain with the Volkswagen Passat GTE, but the Passat has a larger 9.9 kWh Li-ion battery pack.