New Volkswagen Golf Mk8 revealed

Thirty-five million people have bought Golfs since 1974 – making the small German hatchback more popular than any other car except the Toyota Corolla – and Volkswagen hopes they’re not about to abandon its most iconic surviving model just yet.

But the Volkswagen Golf is facing a very different kind of threat to its dominance as the age of electrification arrives in Europe, on the eve of the eighth-generation model’s European launch in December and its Australian release late next year.

Gough Whitlam was the Australian Prime Minister when Volkswagen launched the first Golf, but the kind of technology and safety in the eighth Golf wasn’t even thought about then.

In Europe, the 2020 Volkswagen Golf Mk8 range will be headlined by five hybrid models in all, including a pair of plug-in hybrid models, each with more than 70km of pure electric range, and another three mild-hybrids.

The remaining diesel, a 2.0-litre turbo four, will see a 17 per cent drop in its CO2 emissions thanks to a new dual AdBlue injection system for the series catalysts, while the petrol motors will all cut about 10 per cent from their emissions figures.

There will be old-fashioned speed, too, with up to 221kW for the new Volkswagen Golf GTI. That’s 300 old-school horsepower for top-end versions of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol front-drive hot hatch.

The Mk8 Golf will also be the first car-to-X model in its class, with its permanently-on wireless internet able to receive warnings from police, fire and ambulance crews, along with roadworks or emergency scenarios on the roads.

The system’s pop-up messages will give drivers up to five seconds of extra reaction time to oncoming emergency services or for closed lanes or crash sites, with up to 800 metres of range in open country or 250 metres in inner cities.

The Golf Mk8 is also sleeker, with a tauter stance on the road, while losing none of its luggage area and gaining even more rear legroom.

“The new Golf is a sporty type that easily copes with everyday life,” Volkswagen’s design head Klaus Bischoff stated.

“Its nonchalance is expressed as part of its clear-cut, pure design language that has achieved a seamless appearance in the eighth generation.”

It still rides on the MQB underbody architecture, though it has been revised to the point where it’s now called MQB Evo, and slashes 50kg from the current Golf’s kerb weight, while stiffening the chassis even further.

The new Golf’s dimensions remain in the same class as the outgoing model, with a 26mm boost in length to 4284mm, a 10mm reduction in width to 1789mm, 4mm more height and 16mm more length in the wheelbase, which now pushes out to 2636mm.

Its interior will bring a choice of up to four digital instrument cluster layouts, two touch-screens and completely new controls that slash the car’s button count.

There will be both e-Hybrid and GTE plug-in hybrids at the top of the Golf foodchain, though the e-Hybrid will ditch the current car’s pure-electric powertrain.

“It has always brought innovative technology to a broad number of people,” Volkswagen’s head of sales and marketing, Jurgen Stackmann, said.

“In the first generations that was comfort and safety, but with the eighth generation it is the digital revolution. This is the most intelligent Golf ever and it is a revolution for the class.”

The move away from the all-electric e-Golf is either Volkswagen anticipating cannibalisation from the all-new ID.3 electric hatch or Volkswagen not wanting the e-Golf to take EV sales away from its new electric toy.

Both of the range-leading PHEV variants will use the same 2.0-litre EA888 turbo-petrol engine as their combustion power source, combined with a strong, new electric motor.

Every model in Europe's new Volkswagen Golf range will have some sort of electrification, either through plug-in hybrid power, 48-volt mild-hybrid power or a cheaper 12-volt mild-hybrid system.

The base plug-in, the e-Hybrid will top out at 150kW of power, while the GTE pushes that out to 180kW. Both hybrids use the same version of the EA888, and the power difference between them is purely down to different versions of the electric motor.

Under the European Union’s electric-car energy consumption standard (the NEFZ standard), both plug-in Golfs will stretch out to almost 75km of electric range, though Volkswagen engineers expect 60km to 70km of real-world range.

The biggest difference between the two incoming plug-ins and the outgoing GTE is that the electric motor’s lithium-ion battery has grown to 13kWh of energy capacity. The outgoing GTE had just an 8.7kWh battery and managed a claimed 30km of electric range, though that was on the eternally optimistic NEDC cycle rather than the more real-world NEFZ set-up.

The manual gearbox will survive into the next generation Golf, too, with an all-new six-speed unit, specifically designed for the lower-powered models, saving a claimed 5g/km in CO2 emissions all by itself.

Volkswagen makes the same claim for its revised seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, too, which now loads up with up to 400Nm of torque capacity. It needs that, too, because the integrated starter-generator electric motor in the mild-hybrid Golfs will generate 50Nm of torque.

That torque is fed into the crankshaft only after it has been through a three-times gear, so it’s punching 150Nm directly into the crankshaft, rather than being tucked away in the gearbox casing. While it generates between 8-10kW of power in acceleration, it recuperates energy under braking or coasting at up to 12kW.

In Europe, both of the 1.0-litre three-cylinder TSI petrol engines will receive the mild-hybrid system, which will be a boon to both their acceleration from low revs and to Volkswagen’s goals of meeting the tough new EU7 emissions requirements.

The base 1.0-litre TSI will deliver just 66kW of power, but the top version will have 81kW, with the tiny engines boasting both Miller-cycle combustion technology and variable valve timing.

Europe's 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol Golfs have the same technology, introduced with the Mk7’s facelift, and deliver either 96kW or, with the hybrid eTSI, 110kW of power.

A very clever motor, the ACT (Miller-cycle) 1.5-litre motor scores everything from cylinder-on-demand technology capable of switching off two cylinders when the car is cruising to variable valve timing and lift, plus both direct and indirect fuel injection.

It is also paired with the mild-hybrid system, complete with 48V electrics, a DC/DC converter, the battery and the integrated starter-generator, all of which give a claimed 10 per cent improvement in fuel consumption.

Neither the petrol nor the diesel 1.6-litre fours make the cut into the Golf Mk8, with only the 2.0-litre TDI surviving into the new world. Largely a carry-over motor, the 2.0-litre EA288 Evo TDI will have either 85kW or 110kW, depending on the specification.

Both the Golf GTI and the GTD will remain, though neither of them will be launched alongside the rest of the eighth-generation models in Europe.

While the GTD’s powertrain will be a higher-powered version of the EA288 Evo, Europe's new entry-level Golf GTI will come with a circa-190kW version of the existing EA888 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol motor.

A new Volkswagen Golf R hot hatch is also under development and will be revealed later.

Three huge high-resolution digital screens – all at the same level – dominate the cabin, but that’s not the most impressive thing about the consumer technology at play here.

Instead, there’s what Volkswagen calls IQ Assist, which can run the cruise control system at up to 210km/h without steering, braking or throttle inputs, provided its drivers keep their hands on the wheel. (It’s an EU and German law.)

One of the technology’s developers, Matthias Pook, insisted the front assist system for braking also slows down to make turns now, too, including intersections and roundabouts.

Its sensor suite combines a forward-facing radar, two forward-facing cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors around the car, all of which make front-assist and lane-keeping assistance much easier and more accurate.

But that cockpit can’t be kept out of the limelight for long, not with a 10.0-inch touch-screen or, in the lesser versions, an 8.25-inch touch-screen.

The instrument cluster itself now offers a choice of four displays, including two with round dials and one with a larger navigation display.

But the infotainment system adopts a lot of the Innovision philosophies that debuted on the current Touareg and improves them. For example, it takes five touch steps to find the dimmer switch for the instrument cluster on the Touareg, but just two on the Golf Mk8.

It retains the phone-derived concept of a home button, with tiles for the more regularly used apps and functions in the infotainment system or the car’s operating systems. Beneath it all is a slider for the heating and ventilation system, which combines to control the audio controls with a double click.

The navigation system uses a trip overview, and it also uses the high-tech information from traffic alerts, topography and driver habits to deliver the optimal electric power delivery for the plug-in hybrids.

The car is always connected, too, and that makes it easier to connect to music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music or other services like Alexa, and it can easily download from the cloud.

The steering wheels are all multi-function units, helping to lend the Golf’s interior an extremely clean and minimalist design, which is helped by a lift in cabin materials.

There is now the option of a windscreen-based head-up display (not the WWII-style fighter plane screen) and the ‘Hello Volkswagen’ voice control system has been refined, too.

The operation of the lights is now on a panel to the left of the instrument cluster, driving all-new lights that top out with an LED Matrix system.

Boasting 22 LEDs per headlight, the only traditional bulb in the entire Golf 8 range will be the turn indicators in the entry-level car. Even the rear lights are full LED.

Yes, the eighth generation hatch still looks like a Golf, because its basic design is something Volkswagen will never mess with.

“You can’t just start drawing a new Golf,” Stackmann said. “It has to show the hashtags, like the greenhouse and the C-pillar. The C-pillar is one of the most important parts of the design.”

While leaked images showed some of the Golf Mk8’s new tricks, there are plenty more.

It starts with a greenhouse that is 36mm shorter and 5mm lower, plus the C-pillar is tucked in by a full 20mm, which let Volkswagen give the Golf a strong shoulder over the rear wheel.

It also lifted the crease (or ‘tornado line’) along the Golf higher than before.

It’s trimmed down everything else. Moving to full LED lights at both ends meant Volkswagen could narrow down the light arrays, leading to more aggressive looks.

That’s exaggerated at the front, where the upper and lower grilles are very different sizes, and there’s now a second crease line on the bonnet.

The interior is dominated by its screens, but the shifters for the dual-clutch transmissions are much shorter and smaller than before, freeing up interior space.

There is one colour of interior lighting, but there is an option for 30 of them, while most smartphones will connect with the infotainment.

“The Golf is an indicator of the present – this is what’s possible nowadays within the volume segment,” Bischoff said.

“Its design represents the evolution of millions of people’s ‘feeling at home’. The eighth Golf is the new benchmark in function and aesthetics of Germany’s favourite car.”

Naturally, the Volkswagen Golf Mk8 hatch range will grow to again include a wagon version, which will in turn spawn another Golf Alltrack crossover.

Despite all the powertrain advances for Europe's Golf 8, Volkswagen Australia has confirmed the version to be launched Down Under in late 2020 will continue with a 110kW/250Nm 1.4-litre turbo-petrol 110TSI engine.

Among its new technologies will be wireless Apple CarPlay and the availability of a head-up display and new 10-inch infotainment touch-screen.

The new Volkswagen Golf GTI is likely to be launched alongside mainstream versions of the new Golf 8 here from late next year, but from launch it too will be limited to a carryover engine for Australia -- in this case the same 180kW/370Nm 2.0-litre turbo four that powers the current Golf 7.5.