Electric Golf GTI to take the icon into the 2030s

VW is bringing the iconic hot hatchback brand into the EV era, with the new Golf GTI EV already in development

- Phil McNamara

THE first all-electric Golf GTI is under development - and Volkswagen 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 can make it exciting. It has to be exciting, it has to be authentic. It has to be a [true] GTI.”

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 600bhp 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.