It would be fair to say we’re yet to fully see what a small, fun electric car will look like. Yes, there’s the Abarth 500e and the Mini Cooper SE, but what about the battery-powered offspring of arguably the greatest hot hatch of the lot? I’m talking about an electric Golf GTI.
Before we get too carried away, this isn’t technically an electric Golf GTI. Volkswagen’s first electric GTI car will be a tuned up version of the upcoming ID.2, the company's small new EV hatchback. The company revealed a fantastic-looking concept last year, and now it has shared a few more tantalising details about how it’ll drive.
Speaking at the GTI Fan Fest event in Wolfsburg, Germany – and reported by Autocar this week – Volkswagen technical boss Kai Grünitz suggested the focus won’t be on the sort of rapid acceleration that EVs make easy.
“GTI is alive and we’ll keep it alive in the future,” Grünitz said, adding: “The GTI badge is about passion, and when we started looking at ideas for an electric GTI, we knew it’s about more than just power.”
Admitting how easy it is to make a super-powerful EV – and how that might not be the correct approach for a battery-powered GTI – Grünitz continued: “With an electric car, adding a lot of power is really easy, but do we need 300bhp or 350bhp? With a GTI, what’s more important than power is drivability. It will be a real go-kart. I’ve driven a prototype and it’s really amazing.”
The go-kart reference caught my attention. For a couple of decades now, Mini has basically owned the “our car drives like a go-kart” marketing message, and the latest electric Cooper SE continues that trend. But now it sounds like it’s Volkswagen’s turn, and if a car that looks like the ID.2 GTI concept drives even remotely like a kart, I’m all-in.
