I took the EGolf to 3 Events this past week for NDEW2015 in Northern CA. I was the only VW egolf at all 3 events! I had a great time though, talked to a lot a cool people and probably sold more EGolfs than any salesman ever!
I even had some people ask me what dealer I worked for! And most were shocked to find out it was my car and I was just there as the owner. They said that VW should have more enuthsiastic customers be the salesmen because I got them all excited about it and wanting to know more. I thought I was just being nice by asking if they had any questions😊.
It was clear to me after the first few people came around that 99.9% of people don't even know the EGolf is real.... Many thought it was a prototype not for sale, a hybrid, a self made conversion, or a future model but not for real yet. this made several things really clear, VW sucks at advertising this car in the US. Dealers and VW corporate have made little attempt to show people the benefits of EVs like the EGolf in the US, and VW really does need to pay me for this!
Talked to many people who were on the fence about EVs, or people who had a Leaf but we're looking for better options. Even one guy who had a BMW i3, but now wishes he waited a month for the eGolf to come out because he doesn't like the looks or the quirks of his i3, but loves the looks, price and better drive dynamics of the eGolf.
The 'VOLTZWAGEN" was a hit for sure, and my clever little touches with the fender decals and my euro plate drew in many lookers, who then ended up asking all kinds of questions for quite a while. I even took a few for a ride to show them the smooth quite ride, and punchy acceleration it has.
The events themselves were a mixed bag. One was hidden in an office parking lot. The other was at a house in a residential area, and the last one ,in Cupertino, was the biggest. But by no means what I was hoping for. I was hoping Tesla would've brought out the Model X for display. Chevy would've brought the 2016 Volt and even the concept Bolt, and Nissan would've had the 2016 Leaf there.... But zero of those things happened. Not even the big EV Rally happened.... Just a car show of EVs. There were in fact some cool conversion cars there, from a pick up to a Shelby Cobra EV and even a fellow Golf EV converted from a MK3 Golf. A few other home made contraptions and a single food truck rounded it out. Of course Nissan, Ford and Chevy had a presence there for test drives, but no VW, no Fiat, no BMW, not even Toyota was present.
So although I was a bit disappointed in the events, I still had fun, and probably educated more than I learned, which leads me to believe I'm doing the right thing!
Stay tuned for my video review of the eGolf soon!
-ALX
