Volkswagen Golf to live on with ICE and EV options
Iconic family car could be offered on two platforms, as the brand attempts to satisfy softening EV demand
The next-generation Volkswagen Golf could be offered with a choice of petrol, hybrid and fully electric powertrains, with a single body disguising a pair of platforms – much like the latest MINI Cooper.
Speaking from the Paris Motor Show, Martin Sander, board member for sales, marketing and aftersales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars, told Auto Express the company wanted to build on its ID electric car brand, rather than simply returning to household names for future models like Polo and Golf.
“ID is a really strong brand,” Sander told us. “There is an ID community; ID drivers meet up once a year at Lake Como. This shows that ID in itself is becoming a strong brand – we need to think very, very carefully about whether we want to ditch that.
“The future of individual mobility will be electric – whether that is 2030 or 2035, the future will be electric. So if we want to be market leaders in the future, we will have to have a strong name that reflects this ambition of us being number one,” he said.
But Sander hinted that as well as building on its ID brand, the firm wouldn’t ignore the fact that electric car demand was softening across Europe – suggesting that it’ll continue to develop its range of petrol and hybrid cars towards the end of the decade and beyond.
“As long as we see customers demanding vehicles with a combustion engine – we are one of the largest car companies in the world, we will offer that,” he told us. “Sooner or later there will be an end date, but right now it is too soon to say.”
However, we know that the next-generation Volkswagen T-Roc SUV, which is due soon, will be the last all-new petrol VW. This means the company will need to refresh and adapt its existing ICE cars if it wants to keep selling them through to 2030 and beyond.
When asked if we might see Volkswagen adopt a similar strategy to the likes of MINI, whereby it puts what is a visually similar body – albeit with key structural differences – on top of both ICE (MQB) and EV-specific (MEB) platforms, Sander suggested a desire to converge the firm’s differing designs.
“I think it’s really important that we have a clear Volkswagen design language,” Sander told us. “From the next launches you will see lots more clarity on the way Volkswagen vehicles are designed.
“What does Volkswagen stand for?” he asked. “It stands for solidness and reliability; you want Volkswagen as a brand to be likeable. This will apply to ICE vehicles and EVs – across the whole Volkswagen family.”
We expect, therefore, to see a Volkswagen ID. Golf launch alongside an all-but aesthetically identical ICE Golf before the end of the decade – possibly replacing the ID.3 and Mk8 Golf in one fell swoop.
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