The VW ID.GTI Concept EV reintroduces the fun compact car for the electric age
Volkswagen is bringing back its Golf GTI in electric form, with the ID.GTI concept, which it has announced will “be built as a usable sports car in the electric age.”
Just as with the BMW Vision Neue Klasse concept car that debuted this weekend at the Munich Motor Show, the ID.GTI Concept looks deeply into the brand’s petrol heritage for its vision of the future, rather than trying to reshape Brand vision. Look and brand at the same time as payment and interface.
As Volkswagen points out, the model’s debut takes place 48 years after the world premiere of the original GTI, which was always based on the Volkswagen Golf hatchback. In this case, the GTI concept is based on the well-received ID.2all EV concept shown in March – a €25,000 small electric car prototype.
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
In keeping with tradition, the GTI keeps it simple but makes it even sportier. An electronically controlled front-axle differential lock, much like that of the current petrol-powered GTI, will help this front-wheel-drive hatchback deliver torque with confidence.
The so-called GTI Experience Control in the center console will allow plenty of driver customization, with adjustments to the drive system, steering, audio and “simulated shift points”. The reveal comes, perhaps coincidentally, just days after the introduction of the 2024 VW GTI 380, the model that gives the GTI’s petrol-powered manual transmission — and its traditional shift points — goodbye.
“Production has already been decided as part of our electrification plans,” said Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, about the concept.
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
The truly electric GTI concept maintains the compact, park-friendly size of generations of GTIs as well. It measures 161.6 inches long, 72.4 inches wide and 59.0 inches high, and sits on a wheelbase of 102.4 inches. Compared to the current Golf GTI, it’s about three inches shorter, slightly wider and one inch longer, on a slightly shorter wheelbase. It wears 20-inch alloy wheels with wide performance tires—something the team will undoubtedly need to manage while balancing performance and range in the production model.
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Andreas Mindt, Volkswagen’s head of design, said he was already thinking of a new GTI when he designed the ID.2all. GTI cues worked into this concept include a red-framed radiator grille (with a smaller slot than the petrol car), a red stripe across the front, and a matte black diffuser and air intake areas that are styled after the original Golf GTI. Additional black elements on the lower body help lower and widen the design. Meanwhile, it also borrows from the ID family – including the ID.4 – with IQ.Light LED headlamps as well as curtain airbags behind the daytime running lights that improve aerodynamics and pull air back into the wheels to help cool the brakes. A black roof roller is used in place of the usual black rear window frame to also help improve aerodynamics.
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
With just the interiors so far, Volkswagen is paying homage to the GTI’s past with embossed sports seats, a golf-ball-style paddle shifter, and a three-spoke steering wheel with lowered shock absorbers. There’s a thumbwheel and two buttons for toggling the display of digital instruments, including the AR head-up display.
The thick, vertical rear pillar has always been a dominant design feature of the Golf, and at least in the initial images this is still the case. Volkswagen claims that the strong side edges “create a positive surface tension that is typical of the Volikswagen and GTI.”
Volkswagen ID.GTI concept
Volkswagen has yet to reveal the timeline for its future electric GTI, or even verify that it will be a global model headed to the US. However, there is a simple answer to this: In the US, the GTI has such a good reputation and a well-known brand that you almost certainly won’t want to part with it. Meanwhile, the VW e-Golf was a highly regarded albeit niche model that launched in late 2014 and paved the way for the ID.4 crossover. Apply some deductive reasoning to this, and if VW can’t deliver its roughly $27,000 US compact electric car, perhaps a somewhat higher price tag will hit the spot for a GTI and what Americans really want in a compact car. Fun to drive a car.
