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 well and truly underway to electrify the original GTI.
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“At the end of the decade we will bring an electric Golf [GTI], and that will be a monster car,” said Schäfer. “I’m very happy with the progress. It’s cool. You can make it exciting, it has to be exciting, it has to be authentic. If we bring a GTI, it has to be a [true] GTI.”
FWD Golf GTI and AWD Golf R
The headline news is that 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 80bhp 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 amount of torque to each front wheel.
