Volkswagen has teased electric versions of its beloved GTI performance range for years now. The tiny ID.GTI concept from 2023 gave us our first real taste of a performance EV, while the company just recently announced an ID.3 GTI for Europe next year. An electric Golf GTI is also on the docket, and new details have us even more excited for the upcoming electric hot hatch.
In an interview with AutoExpress, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer said that the new Golf GTI EV will be here before the end of the decade—and it will be a “monster.”
Volkswagen ID.GTI Concept
“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.”
But that’s not all. Schäfer also confirmed the arrival of a Golf R EV, which was previously rumored but never outright confirmed. While the electric Golf R will opt for an all-wheel-drive setup, the electric Golf GTI will maintain its signature front-wheel-drive configuration with electric motors powering the front axle exclusively.
Both the electric GTI and Golf R models will ride on Volkswagen Group’s new Scalable Systems Platform (SSP). The SSP will be used extensively throughout the VW Group portfolio, in every brand from Skoda, to Lamborghini, to Volkswagen. That scalable platform can be broken down by size and price depending on the vehicle, and uses technology that Schäfer dubs “mind-blowing.”
Volkswagen ID. GTI Concept
“We’ve driven a few prototypes on the new setup, and it’s mind-blowing,” he says. “What about the sound? What about the total feel, the handling, and so on. It can be done.”
The electric Golf GTI won’t show up for another five years, while the electric Golf R likely won’t arrive until after that. The first EV in VW’s GTI portfolio will be based on the ID.2 and exclusively for Europe. Essentially, a production version of the ID.GTI concept we saw two years ago. The ID.3 GTI, meanwhile, will also show up sometime next year in Europe.