I believe the reason is that batteries to make up the 200 mile range people expect are just very heavy. I think older electric vehicles with ~70mi range would have been substantially lighter. I would wager the car you want was actually the 2017-2019 E-Golf.

Modern highway safety standards also tend to increase the hight of windows which tend to also make cars taller to not kill visibility. Look at the 2019 Mazda 3 AWD redesign, especially the hatchback. It looks squished compared to the previous years because they didn't raise the vehicle height, but all the windows start higher in the car body. That trend is true of ICE vehicles as well though.