NEXT VW GOLF TO TAP ULTRA-ADVANCED TECH

Hatch EV will be a software-defined car, courtesy of Rivian partnership

- JAMES ATTWOOD

The new Volkswagen ID Golf, due in around 2028, will be one of the first Volkswagen Group models to benefit from the full potential of an advanced new software system being developed in a joint venture with EV start-up Rivian.

The new model will be the ninth generation of the Golf but the first to be fully electric, and it will sit on the Volkswagen Group's advanced new SSP EV platform. The ID Golf will be twinned with the new Skoda Octavia (p4).

Last year, the Volkswagen Group invested £4.6 billion in Rivian to form a new joint venture to develop an advanced new 'zonal' software architecture, which is set to be used on virtually all the group's vehicles sold in Europe and North America from 2027 onwards. The focus on software is one element of a new 10-year plan to make the Volkswagen Group what CEO Oliver Blume calls "the leading global automotive tech driver".

The £17,000 production version of the ID Every1 concept will be the first car to use a version of the new platform (News, 12 March).