2024 Volkswagen Golf Mk8.5 makes official debut

The facelifted 2024 Volkswagen Golf has made its official debut in Germany donning new bumpers, lighting graphics, alloy wheel designs, an overhauled cabin layout and tweaked powertrains.

We largely already knew what the Mk8.5 Golf would look like following an extensive teaser of the sporty GTI earlier this month and a pair of revealing leaks over the past couple of weeks, meaning the official press images don’t hold any major surprises in terms of the exterior.

It’s a similar story with the reworked interior, which was outed in an official GTI teaser in the first week of January, confirming a vast new 12.9-inch infotainment interface for some versions, which dominates the dashboard and is mercifully underlined by back-lit temperature sliders.

Both the new widescreen multimedia system and the smaller 10.2-inch unit offer sharper graphics and faster processing times than in any previous Golf models, while the haptic controls on the steering wheel have been replaced by physical buttons – just as VW promised they would be months ago.

Behind the steering wheel is a configurable 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster on all variants, however, they’re more configurable in the R-Line, GTE and GTI than in lesser trim levels.

Speaking of the sporty twins, the plug-in hybrid GTE (along with the other plug-in hybrid variants) has been treated to a comprehensive powertrain overhaul including a new 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and a significantly bigger lithium-ion battery (19.7kWh), resulting in 200kW of power (+20kW), a circa-100km electric range and newfound 50kW DC fast-charging capabilities.

The 2024 VW Golf GTI, meantime, is described by its creators as “even sportier” and comes with a new peak power output of 195kW (+15kW) courtesy of the updated 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine as seen in the flagship VW Passat, which will undoubtedly sharped up the hot hatch’s performance and possibly even see it crack 100km/h in the high 5sec range.

Upgrades will also no doubt be applied to the pending GTI Clubsport and flagship Golf R when they debut in the second half of the year, to help hoist them back ahead of the flourishing line-up of angry Cupra models.

Global equipment highlights on the new Golf include IQ.LIGHT Matrix LED headlights, IDA voice assistant with AI learning and ChatGPT integration, upgraded Park Assist Plus, Area View 360-view system, alloy wheels, keyless access and the aforementioned tech upgrades.

“The Golf has been at the heart of the Volkswagen brand for half a century now, offering affordable mobility for all at the highest technical level,” said VW Passenger Cars CEO Thomas Schafer.

“This is precisely what we are now building on with the new evolutionary stage – with even higher efficiency, comfort and quality and a new operating concept.

“The Golf does not get any better than this.”

Volkswagen Australia has confirmed production for our market will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, which points to a late 2024 or early 2025 local introduction for the Mk8.5 Golf. The Australian line-up and specification details will be announced closer to its release.

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