Volkswagen e-Golf price lowered by £2,765

Starting prices for the Volkswagen e-Golf have been lowered from £30,340 to £27,575, the German manufacturer has announced.

This figure includes the £3,500 discount provided by the government’s plug-in car grant.

Volkswagen is also giving potential customers 48-hour test drives of the electric hatch, an offer that has been in place since the middle of the year.

The move comes just days before the ID.3 is revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show: it will become Volkswagen’s flagship electric car, with a variety of battery sizes returning between 205 and 342 miles of range.

Launching in special-edition ‘ID.3 1st’ form, UK buyers will initially be limited to just the mid-range, 58kWh battery, which looks set to return around 261 miles on a single charge.

The arrival of the ID.3 leaves the e-Golf looking dated: its 35.8kWh battery manages just 144 miles of range according to the latest WLTP test procedure.

Given that the two cars occupy the same segment, it isn’t clear if Volkswagen will continue to sell the e-Golf indefinitely.

A facelifted version of the Volkswagen e-up! is also set to be revealed in Frankfurt: it could deliver up to 160 miles of range, leaving the e-Golf’s future looking increasingly bleak.

Volkswagen has invested billions developing its new MEB electric-car platform, which will underpin dozens of new electric vehicles across Volkswagen Group. These include the ID. Crozz crossover, the ID. Buzz minibus, as well as the SEAT el-Born hatchback and Skoda Vision iV SUV.

Ford has also bought access to MEB, signing a deal that will enable it to build “at least one” mass production electric car, thought to be pencilled in for 2023.