The Petrol-Only VW Golf GTI Should Be 'Safe' For Now, But Hybrid Power Is On The Way

Part of the reason we love the VW Golf GTI so much is its simplicity. It doesn’t have an engine with huge horsepower, nor does it have some fancy all-wheel drive system or limited-slip differential as standard. But with the onset of electrification in the car industry, how long will this simplicity last?

When asked whether the GTI will stay petrol-only for one more generation at the launch of the facelifted VW Golf last week, VW chairman Dr. Herbert Diess replied “at least”. He’s not averse to the idea of a hybrid Golf GTI though, and was quick to point out that the sole hybrid Golf on offer right now - the GTE - already offers a reasonable level of performance.

Regardless, hybridisation of the GTI does seem inevitable. At the same event Dr. Diess told us that “downsizing is over,” as “emissions tend to go up as engines get smaller,” and that VW will instead look to part and full electric cars to improve efficiency. Thanks to what he calls a “strong rollout” of 48-volt electrical systems, it’ll be possible to implement “micro hybrids”.

Using very small electric motors, they’ll be able to open up a whole new world of energy recovery options while giving boost in performance, at a fraction of the cost of a full-on hybrid system. The GTI will no doubt receive such a system eventually, and even be replaced by some sort of fully electric hot hatch much further down the line. For the time being though, it looks like it’ll be sticking to the same tried-and-tested recipe.