‘Monster’ 2029 Volkswagen Golf GTI EV locked in

Work has already begun on the 2029 Volkswagen Golf GTI EV – a state-of-the-art hot hatch that VW’s own CEO has promised will be a “monster car” when it arrives before the end of this decade.

Speaking with Auto Express, Volkswagen boss Thomas Schäfer said using the iconic Golf GTI nameplate for an EV wasn’t a decision the company took lightly, promising the new hot hatch would be both exciting while remaining authentic to the highly respected GTI sub-brand.

“At the end of the decade we will bring an electric Golf [GTI], and that will be a monster car,” said Schäfer.

“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.”

Paving the way for the VW Golf GTI is the latest 240kW Volkswagen ID.3 GTX, but according to Schäfer the quickest version of the VW EV hatch will share little in common with the inbound Golf GTI due in 2029.

That’s because the senior VW exec has confirmed the Golf hot hatch will remain front-wheel drive, unlike the rear-wheel-drive ID.3 GTX.

The fast Golf EV will also be based on a different all-new pioneering Scalable Systems Platform (SSP). This will replace the MEB architecture that underpins the ID.3 and the more sophisticated PPE platform used by the Porsche Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron.

The new platform has been built to handle anything from 85kW to 736kW, with the Golf GTI tipped to come with around 350kW.

If that doesn’t sound like much beside the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N, which pumps out a herculean 478kW, Schäfer said that an even faster dual-motor VW Golf R is already in development, with that car likely to feature over 500kW of power.

When both the Golf GTI and Golf R EVs arrive, Schäfer is confident its new battery-electric hatchbacks will set new benchmarks. He said the inbound ID.2 GTI, which already been shown in near-production-ready form, will help indicate just what’s in store for enthusiasts perhaps wary of an all-electric Golf GTI.

“We’ll bring through a whole group of GTIs, starting with the ID.2 GTI, which is the first one coming electrically. When we started this journey, [we told the] the development teams ‘we’ve got to be proud of the GTI of the future’, and the team’s taking that on.”

Schäfer went onto say that early prototypes of the ID.2 GTI, which is due to go on sale in 2026, were “mind-blowing” when it came to its sound, feel and handling, building anticipation for the more advanced hot Golf.

Until the 2029 Volkswagen Golf GTI’s arrival, the VW CEO admitted that the current combustion-powered Golf hatch range will remain on sale until the end of the decade and will be updated multiple times to keep it fresh.

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