All-electric Volkswagen Golf Mk9 to replace ID.3

It’s no secret the Volkswagen Golf is in for an electric future and that includes the next-generation VW Golf GTI and R performance versions, but it seems the Golf’s electric makeover could come at the cost of the ID.3 electric batch.

That’s the latest word from a Volkswagen executive who declared the Golf “the heart” of the German brand in a recent interview with Top Gear, despite an ever-increasing demand for SUVs.

“We won’t kill the Golf,” Volkswagen technical development boss Kai Grunitz told the British publication before confirming the recently revealed Golf Mk8.5 will be the last internal combustion iteration ahead of the Golf’s battery-electric future.

“We’ve started to work on a fully electric Golf. We have concrete ideas of how it will look like, but we will see how the market develops. There will be an overlap between ID.3 and electric Golf.”

Grunitz stated bluntly that there isn’t “enough space to have two or three different models fitting to the same customer” when asked about what the emergence of an electric Golf would mean for the current ID.3, implying the latter will be limited to just a single generation before eventually being replaced by the former.

“If we bring an electric vehicle with the name Golf, it has to be a real Golf. It has to look like a Golf. It has to be affordable like a Golf. It has to be capable like a Golf. And there has to be a GTI,” he said.

A next-generation battery-electric Golf GTI has already confirmed and teased by Volkswagen design boss Andreas Mindt, along with confirmation the legacy-busting model will be revealed in 2026 – likely serving as a precursor to a full range of new Golf EVs.

Based on VW’s typical eight-year product cycle, Top Gear speculates the ninth-generation Golf will be released sometime in 2028, but with Korean and Chinese competitors shortening their model lives there’s every chance that timeline could be accelerated.

We anticipate the electric Golf GTI will be shown in 2026 but not released until 2027 in conjunction with the rest of the Golf portfolio, which would in turn leave a bit of breathing room for the ID.3 to continue on sale and the highly-anticipated GTX version to set the performance EV tone – one-upping Cupra in the process – before the inevitable R variants come along.

Odds are the electric Golf will be underpinned by the VW Group’s SSP architecture – as opposed to the ID.3’s MEB platform – given the German giant is attempting to streamline and harmonise vehicle production and development across its multiple brands.

“The idea is to have the same electric architecture… SSP will be a common electronic architecture for the whole group,” Grunitz said.

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