Some e-cars do more dancing than you might think. Like the Tesla Model X. The VW e-Golf is completely different. It doesn’t even have to face many a luxury problem

Incredibly stupid is perhaps the right expression. That’s how you feel when you put the Model X on the supercharger on the outskirts of Graz on Sunday morning and then have to call a taxi to take you to the nearest coffee house for a Sunday breakfast.

But wait, not that you think Tesla didn’t think of this case. The navigation system contains the access code with which you can open the door to the Tesla branch, and inside there’s coffee and certainly something to snack on – but of course that’s not in keeping with the status quo when you’re out with your wife on the weekends. So the free load on the Supercharger comes to 38 euros for a taxi and almost as much for a good breakfast.

Although if you already drive a Tesla – our Tesla, a model X 100D, costs 129,290 Euros according to the list – the few coins don’t matter anymore. In return, the Tesla offers a lot of luxury. We find leather and wood in the cockpit, which is dominated by a giant screen full of not so nice fingertappers. There are also innovative rear doors that take some getting used to if you don’t want to bang your head all over the place, a car that locks itself, that doesn’t open the doors any further than it can, and that has an acceleration as if energy were simply available endlessly.

But let’s not take a curve. You’ll get scared and bang in the Tesla. Because even though the Model X is an island of innovations on wheels, it can do one thing very badly: drive smartly. The steering of a computer game gives more feedback, the chassis fails miserably due to the Tesla’s weight of around 2.4 tons.

The huge windscreen, which almost extends over the second row of seats, not only lets a lot of light into the car – even such a funny fashion that you don’t need to follow – but also turns the Model X into a glass house, which even with little sunshine causes permanent whirl from the air vents. Which brings us to the most incredible subject of the Tesla: It’s way too loud. The rolling noise of the tires penetrates into the passenger compartment almost unfiltered, in addition there are wind noises from outside and creaking from inside, so that the fat system, which of course prefers to play Spotify instead of the radio, becomes an endurance runner.

These are problems that the e-Golf can only laugh about. It drives precisely, has a fine chassis, and the interior is far from being equipped with such fine materials and certainly not with a huge parachute, but it is so cleanly built that nothing squeaks or creaks. It is just a normal Golf, but with a different engine.

On the other hand: Driving from Vienna to Graz over the weekend, to a hotel without loading possibility, you wouldn’t do that with the Golf. In our test – with many motorway stages that electric cars don’t like at all – it achieved a range of 250 kilometres, the Model X reels off 200 kilometres more with the same driving style.

The e-Golf only costs 42,879 Euros for this – which is still far too much money for the sacrifices you have to make for the money compared to a conventional car. But in the Golf you can at least hang up your suit. In the Tesla there are no coat hooks, but cup holders for a two-week desert round with all six occupants.

If you need a car to drive to work every day, we recommend the e-Golf. But if you want to impress at all costs, then drive Tesla. (Guido Gluschitsch, 30.10.2017)

The Tesla is big, accelerates enormously – but we had the autopilot switched off before the test. The e-Golf is less excited, but a real car, just with a different drive.

Tesla Model X

  • Price: from 111.650 €
  • 2 electric motors / battery: 100 kWh
  • Power: 386 kW (525 PS) / Torque: 900 Nm
  • Standard range 565 km / Test range: 460 km
  • 0-100 km/h: 4.9 sec. / Maximum speed: 250 km/h
  • length: 504 cm / width 200 cm / height: 168 cm
  • luggage volume: 2180 l / weight: 2400 kg
  • Standard consumption: 18 kWh / 100 km
  • All-wheel drive

VW e-Golf

  • Price: from 38.690 €
  • 1 electric motor / battery: 35.8 kWh
  • Power: 100 kW (136 PS) / Torque: 290 Nm
  • Standard range: 300 km / Test range: 250 km
  • 0-100 km/h: 9.6 sec. / Maximum speed: 150 km/h
  • length: 427 cm / width 179 cm / height: 148 cm
  • luggage volume: 341-1231 l / weight: 1615 kg
  • Standard consumption: 12.7 kWh / 100 km
  • Front wheel drive