New electric Volkswagen Golf GTI will take iconic hot hatch into the 2030s
VW is taking the iconic hot hatchback brand into the electric era with the new Golf GTI EV already in development, and our exclusive images preview how it could look
The first all-electric Volkswagen Golf GTI is under development – and VW CEO Thomas Schäfer promises “it’ll be a monster car”.
VW will keep updating the current Golf until the end of the decade, at which point a pure-electric version will come into play, based on the VW Group’s all-new SSP architecture. And with zero margin for error on such an iconic halo car, conceptual work is already well under way.
“I’m very happy with the progress,” said Schäfer. “It’s cool. You ca nmake it exciting. It has to be exciting, it has to be authentic. It has to be a [true] GTI.”
FWD Golf GTI and AWD Golf R
The GTI will be front-wheel drive, despite its closest electric sibling – the ID.3 GTX – having a 322bhp motor driving the rear wheels. That’s around 60bhp more than today’s 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol GTI, but it’s possible that the e-GTI will match its stepchange in power, because of an electric motor’s ability to precisely control the torque at each wheel.
The first electric Golf R – also being planned, according to Schäfer – will have the capacity to come with another power leap, with drive being applied to all four wheels.
The ID.2 GTI – already shown in concept form – will set the benchmark for the new hot Golf, Schäfer said. “We’ll bring through a whole group of GTI, starting with the ID.2 GTI, which is the first one coming electrically. When we started this journey, [we told] the development teams ‘we’ve got to be proud of the GTI of the future’, and the team’s taking that on.”
The CEO has already hot-lapped the upcoming GTI, expected to hit the market in 2026. “We’ve driven a few prototypes on the new set-up, and it’s mind blowing. What about the sound? What about the total feel, the handling and so on? It can be done,” Schäfer said - but he wouldn’t be drawn on whether the GTI would emulate Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N with its simulated gearshifts and soundtrack, along with a drift mode – electronic playthings that would be better suited to the more hardcore nature of the electric Golf R.
Electric VW Golf GTI design
Digital work on the new Golf package is shaping up, before the car moves into the physical prototype stage. “We know what the vehicle looks like and [we can] sit virtually in the vehicle,” said Schäfer. “The dimensions of the platform and the vehicle are clear, although it’s not [fine-tuned] to the last design detail. We have many steps to get through.”
The SSP underpinnings will be a game changer for the Volkswagen Group. Electric cars from Skoda and VW all the way up to Lamborghini and Bentley will tap into the hardware and software modules it introduces, but iterations will be broken down according to vehicle size and cost.
“It’s going to be really scalable,” the boss told Auto Express on the fringe of the FT’s Future of the Car summit. “We have certain sizes according to the vehicle, but still the same modules of the key components that can be used across [SSP], so you have the maximum scaling effect, also in purchasing power.”
And what’s Thomas Schäfer’s favourite GTI of all time? “I think the first one is the most exciting, because it came out of nowhere and was a total game changer.”
That first Golf GTI made 108bhp from its 1.6-litre, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder engine. That’ll be a world apart from the first all-electric, 300bhp-plus Golf GTI arriving some 54 years later – but hopefully its core DNA will be very much intact.
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