DS 3 E-Tense vs VW e-Golf

The DS 3 E-Tense costs £6,150 more than the VW e-Golf. For that premium it adds 130 miles more WLTP range, 60 kW faster peak rapid charging and 30 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the DS 3 E-Tense comes out ahead overall.

The VW e-Golf is £6,150 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £152 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW e-Golf comes out roughly £6,070 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 207 miles for the DS 3 E-Tense and 71 miles for the VW e-Golf - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The DS 3 E-Tense goes roughly 136 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 30 minutes in the DS 3 E-Tense and 22 in the VW e-Golf, so the VW e-Golf loses less time at each stop. So the DS 3 E-Tense stops less often while the VW e-Golf stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 3 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 601 mm of total clearance for the VW e-Golf and about 598 mm of total clearance for the DS 3 E-Tense.