Volkswagen is preparing to expand the GTI performance brand across multiple model lines in the electric era – and CEO Thomas Schäfer says the hot new models will be “mind-blowing” to drive.
The company is preparing to take GTI electric in 2026 with the production version of the ID GTI concept – which will be the hot range-topping variant of the ID 2 supermini.
A potent version of the electric ninth-generation Golf will follow by the end of the decade – and these two cars will “start a whole group of GTI” models due to be rolled out in the coming years across Volkswagen’s electric line-up.
Schäfer revealed that work is well under way on development of the first GTI EVs and he pledged that they will remain true to the characteristics of every GTI model that has gone before.
“First of all: can you make an electric Golf exciting? Absolutely,” he said. “We have driven a few prototypes that we have built on the new set-up and it is mind-blowing.”
Schäfer said the overarching priority of the electric GTI engineering programme is to make these next-gen hot hatchbacks feel obviously different from the standard car. “What about the sound? What about the total feel? The handling and so on can be done,” he said.
But it will be a few years before Volkswagen shows a production-ready electric Golf GTI, with today’s petrol-powered car due to remain on sale well into the second half of the 2020s.
Schäfer said: “We have time now, as the Golf is running very well into the end of this decade, and at the end of the decade, we’ll bring an electric Golf.”
He added that his experience of the prototypes suggests the next GTI will be “a monster car”.
“I’m very happy with the progress,” he said. “It’s cool and you can make it exciting. It has to be exciting and it has to be authentic.”
Schäfer did not give any indication of when Volkswagen will reveal the final version of the ID 2 GTI, but the standard car is due to be launched in early 2026, which is also the 50th anniversary of the launch of the original Mk1 Golf GTI – opening the possibility of a debut at the firm’s annual GTI festival in Wolfsburg next summer.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen plans to mark the occasion with a new special 50th anniversary version of today’s Golf GTI at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in June.