It’s official: Volkswagen confirms new electric Golf GTI will be FWD only

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer has confirmed the company’s plans to develop a full range of “monster” electric hot-hatches, including an all-new electric Golf GTI that will stay true to its iconic namesake with a boxy profile and, of course, front-wheel drive.

After months of conjecture, VW CEO Thomas Schäfer says an all-electric hot-hatch version of the company’s next-generation Golf is, in fact, coming soon. What’s more, Schäfer told the UK’s Auto Express that “it’ll be a monster car.”

And the new Golf GTI? He says it’s just the beginning. “We’ll bring through a whole group of GTI, starting with the ID.2 GTI which is the first one coming electrically,” Schäfer told Phil McNamara. “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.”

Charged up

The upcoming electric Golf GTI’s closest mechanical relative is likely to be the ID.3 GTX, which features a 321 hp electric motor sending power to the rear wheels. Assuming a similar output, that would give the upcoming FWD GTI a staggering 80 more horsepower than today’s 2.0L, turbocharged, ICE-powered GTI.

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As a graduate of The Cadillac Allanté School of Front-wheel Drive Performance™, I shudder to think of the kind of torque steer something like a 321 hp FWD hot-hatch would produce – but we’ve come a long way in the last thirty years, and today’s torque-vectoring traction control systems are sure to keep the new FWD VW GTI under control.

In fact, such a system was alluded to back in 2023, when the ID.GTI concept based on the ID.2 (shown, above) was first unveiled:

The way the first electric GTI unleashes its dynamic capabilities is new and exciting. The worlds of the electric ID. GTI Concept and turbocharged Golf GTI meet up when it comes to transmitting the power to the front wheels. A front-axle differential lock—electronically controlled by a Vehicle Dynamics Manager—is used, just like the current generation of the GTI. The Golf GTI and Golf GTI Clubsport were the first Volkswagen models with this traction-control system. With the ID. GTI Concept, an electric Volkswagen now has this intelligent system on board for the first time.

VOLKSWAGEN

If the big boss is to be believed, the system works. “We’ve driven a few prototypes on the new set-up, and it’s mind blowing,” said Schäfer. “What about the sound? What about the total feel, the handling and so on. It can be done.”

Expect the electric Golf GTI to bow sometime in 2026 with a semi-reasonable price tag, with a hotter, less reasonably priced AWD Golf R version and a smaller, ID.1 based GTI model following a year later.

Electrek’s Take

If the new electric VW Golf GTI doesn’t have plaid Recaro-style sport seats I won’t care, no matter how quick it is, what it costs, how much range it has, or how cool it looks in my neighbor Jeff’s driveway (that dude buys GTIs).

SOURCE: AutoExpress UK; images by pedallingpanda; VW.

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