Next Volkswagen Golf GTI will be a 'monster' - here's when to expect it
The next Golf GTI is currently under development as an all-electric model.
Image: Supplied
IT'S A well-known fact that the next-generation Volkswagen Golf GTI will be all-electric, but now the company’s Chief Executive has shed some additional light on the upcoming performance hatch.
In an interview with Auto Express, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer confirmed that an all-new, battery-powered Golf would launch around the end of this decade, based on the company’s new SSP scalable architecture.
The current, eighth-generation Golf will continue until then, receiving further updates.
The CEO is promising big things for the next-generation performance hatch.
“At the end of the decade, we will bring an electric Golf (GTI), and that will be a monster car,” Schäfer told Auto Express.
“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.”
The new GTI will retain its front-wheel drive layout, the UK publication stated, while a new R version is also in the works, with power going to all four wheels as per the current version.
But long before these two hot Golfs hit the market, Volkswagen will launch the production version of its ID. GTI Concept 01, which will form part of the ID.2 family. This Polo-sized hatch is expected to hit the market in 2026.
Outputs for the next-generation Golf GTI have yet to be confirmed, but given the fun factor being promised, the GTI will surely need to usurp the current ID.3 GTX, which is good for 240kW.
Piped-in sound and numerous chassis innovations will no doubt form part of the package, but the specifics are still under wraps.
“Can you make an electric Golf exciting? Absolutely,” Schäfer said of the next GTI, of which development is already well underway.
Meanwhile, South Africans are still waiting to get their hands on the latest Golf ‘8.5’ GTI.
In 2024, VWSA stated that fuel quality concerns were holding back the launch of this more powerful new model.
But CarMag recently reported that “favourable results” from the company’s latest batch of fuel tests have put the vehicle back on the radar, for possible introduction later in 2025.
As a reminder, the facelifted GTI now produces 195kW and 370Nm, up from the current model’s 180kW, with the 0-100km/h time now listed at 5.9 seconds.