Nobody, not even Volkswagen itself, is expecting the e-Golf to dominate our roads any time soon. The company's UK branch has put in an order for just 130 examples to be brought in from Germany, and once those have gone any future right-hand drive models will be built to order (not too difficult a process because e-Golfs come down the same production line as the petrol and diesel versions).What this demonstrates, if it needed demonstrating, is that electric cars are still very much a minority interest. Within that restricted field, though, there is an increasing amount of competition, and as customer choice widens it becomes ever more important that an individual car be good, rather than merely innovative, if there is an ambition for it to sell well.The e-Golf, being based on what I think is the best small family car on the market, can hardly help being good. With an exception which we'll come to shortly, it feels very much like most other Golfs. It also looks like them, which may appeal to people who don't want attention to be drawn to their choice of car by the unusual nose of the Ford Focus Electric, the unfamiliar rear of the Renault Fluence ZE or the general oddness of the Nissan Leaf.In its unseen regions, of course, it's very similar to all of them, with an electric motor driving the front wheels through a single-speed gearbox (so the only gear-related decision you have to make is whether to go forwards or backwards) and a battery pack mounted beneath the floor.The battery takes up some of the boot space, reducing luggage capacity from 380 to 341 litres, but it also extends forward to beneath the front seats. A Volkswagen spokesman urged me to believe that this was all good news for the road behaviour, since the centre of gravity is lower than and the front/rear weight distribution superior to that of fossil-fuelled Golfs.And of course he was right. These are positive aspects, and you can feel them most when pushing hard round a corner (or, as I can confirm after spending some time with the car in the Milton Keynes area, a roundabout). But he missed the bit about the electric car being more than 200kg heavier than any other Golf, and you can feel that too. It's capable enough on country roads, but its body movement is the most sluggish of any car in the range by quite some margin.Maximum power has been kept down to 114bhp, but even with the extra weight that's enough for most everyday purposes. If you have a combination of range anxiety and insufficient self-control you can select Eco mode, which limits the output to 94bhp and makes the accelerator pedal less responsive. In Eco+ the pedal becomes duller still, the motor won't provide any more than 74bhp and the air-conditioning, if previously switched on, switches itself off again.You can also affect the range by introducing different levels of regenerative braking. If the gearlever is in the D position you get none of this, and the car simply coasts when you lift off the pedal. The motor acts increasingly like a combined brake and generator in D1, D2 and D3, and if you select B you get to the point where you hardly have to use the brakes at all (though it would be judicious to prepare for the possibility that you might).When the recharging time comes it takes half a day to replenish a flat battery from a household socket, but you can get to 80% in 35 minutes via a public charging unit using a suitable cable which Volkswagen (unlike Ford) supplies as standard.The quoted driving range is 118 miles, though the amount of charge I used up in 45 suggested I wouldn't have got anywhere near triple figures. That's largely down to me, though, since I did push on quite hard, and in particular amused myself by erupting away from traffic lights far more quickly than any other vehicle within sight, which is one of the more enjoyable characteristics of electric cars.For the UK market there is only one specification of e-Golf. You get five doors and a level of equipment which closely matches that of the Golf Match, with satellite navigation, DAB digital radio, all-round LED lights (a first for a production VW), adaptive cruise control, dual-zone air-conditioning, front and rear parking sensors, Bluetooth phone preparation, a heated windscreen and a driver alert system.The list price without options is £30,845, which comes down to £25,845 when the UK Government grant for such vehicles is brought into play, making the e-Golf nearly £3000 cheaper than the Focus Electric.The Ford isn't a bad car, but the e-Golf is better, and although battery-powered cars of this size are not, I think, generally as impressive as the smaller ones on the market, the VW would be my personal choice in this class for the moment. Engine Electric motor Power 114bhp Transmission 1-speed CO2 0g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 10.4 seconds Top speed 87mph Price £30,845 Details correct at publication date
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