The future of VW R is electric (ish) | PH Footnote
Volkswagen's performance division is on the road to zero emissions, but the journey there isn't straightforward
We love a hot hatch in Britain. Just look at the turnout we had for our recent best hot hatch poll. Thousands took part in the vote, which saw the Toyota GR Yaris narrowly edge the Renaultsport Clio 182 Trophy for the top spot. The top ten featured the front-wheel drive heroes – the Ford Fiesta ST, Honda Civic Type R and so on – but one stood out to me as a bit of an outlier – the Mk7 Volkswagen Golf R.
Of course, the Mk7 Golf R was always going to make our 38-car strong shortlist. Laudable straight-line performance, all-weather capabilities and the availability of a manual ‘box are all high on the hot hatch priority list. But a top ten finish - beating the GTI Performance of the same generation – goes to show just how much we love affordable(ish) performance in the UK. Something Peter Jost, head of sales and marketing at VW R, was keen to point out when we spoke at a very soggy Brands Hatch.
“The UK is the biggest market for us outside of Germany in Europe”, he said, shortly after handing the keys VW’s 10,000th Tiguan R to its new UK-based customer. So we clearly can’t get enough of the stuff, suggesting that VW R’s formula over shoving 300-odd horsepower turbo four pots into everything it can find (save for the Touareg R hybrid) is working quite nicely. The only problem for R is that it’s going to need to reinvent the formula for the end of the decade.
If the EU gets its way, all new high-volume cars produced and sold in the bloc must be powered exclusively by electric power by 2035 (unless the German transport minister and newfound PH hero gets his way). And with VW seemingly all-in on EVs regardless, that means its R division is lumped into an electric switch, too.
Jost, however, claims that the general principles of the current R line-up will remain intact following the electric switchover. “It will be all-wheel drive, the most powerful car [and] the best looking. So the philosophy of what we have today will basically also be the philosophy of in the electric world, however, it will be added with convenience, which means fast charging [and] a lot of other stuff, like things beyond the car.”
That’s all well and good – and largely what we’d expect from an EV – but VW R still faces the same challenge as many of its rivals in making the switch to electric power: how do you make it a car for drivers? While R has arguably never been a bastion for engagement, it’s made significant strides in recent years. Perhaps that’s the influence of an influx of employees from the company’s now-defunct motorsport division. Jost claims that “a lot of people” were moved from the firm’s racing squad into R, most notably those who have experience working on the mighty ID.R. Okay, so the likelihood of a mad, two-seater electric hypercar with giant wings is unlikely (though I’d love to be proven wrong on that one), but they clearly know a thing or two about making electric cars that aren’t afraid of corners.
“For us, it was important that we have all the, um, the employees”, he said of the disbanded motorsport squad. “We have all these motorsport guys. The drivers help us to develop our cars. So if we, if we develop an R model, we go to the Nurburgring Nordschleife with these drivers. They drive our cars at a very early stage - or in every development stage, actually - and give us feedback on what we can do better in terms of driving dynamics.”
Speaking of development, Jost revealed that VW R actually had a hand in shaping VW’s MEB platform, which underpins a bunch of EVs from the ID.3 to the ID. Buzz. “We are involved in a very early stage”, he said, adding that it the firm is currently working on a “successor platform” as we speak. “We are not alone in a group, so we are talking with Audi Sport, we are talking to Cupra and say, ‘let's do it together’”. Not only should that mean VW’s stablemates don’t tread on each other’s toes (which happens from time to time), but it'll hopefully mean R has a better canvas on which to create its performance EV.
What an electric R model looks like is something that the performance arm is still working on. Jost disclosed that it’d feature bigger brakes and potentially more aggressive styling, while the rest remains a closely guarded secret. Probably because there’s still the best part of a decade to go until the company moves entirely from dino juice to electrons.
I asked him whether we could see some limited-edition, hardcore offerings akin to the GTI Clubsport S as possible run-out models to the current combustion line-up. His response: “No plan so far to be honest. [...] Of course, we are thinking about all that stuff all the time. But, at the end of the day, we are a company and we have a clear task to support the Volkswagen brand to be emotional in a positive sense and to bring also money to the company.”
That’s a no, then. What did come as a surprise, however, is that R isn’t shutting the door on the internal combustion engine as soon as you might think - “the ICE world is extremely successful right now, so we also have to take a look at how fast is it going, infrastructure, what does the customer really wants and don't [want]. I'm not talking only about Europe, but also in the US, south America, Asia and so on.”
“Why not sell [ICE] cars, let's say for the next five years? Because we know exactly what we are doing and earn good money with that and [they] bring emotion to the brand. And [the company could] then go directly to, let's say the electric performance models. Both options are valid. They have their pros and cons I would say, and we haven't decided on that. One thing is for sure we will have a strong R BEV model in the future, [but] the way to zero isn't 100% defined.”
Something like a hot petrol Golf would be an ideal fun and affordable car for anyone wanting to pick up an ICE before 2035 and to cherish and turn into a shed over the following 10-15 years.
Something like a hot petrol Golf would be an ideal fun and affordable car for anyone wanting to pick up an ICE before 2035 and to cherish and turn into a shed over the following 10-15 years.
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
k about what they want and then only ever buy what the finance monkey tells them they can have. They fundamentally invented the whole concept of talking arse while renting what they're allowed. The simple reality is that there are 250 million more of them than Brits.
Will they all of a sudden make drastic changes to their strategy at this point? With so much money on the line? Maybe they'll be thinking which of them (they or their competitors) are more advanced in synthetic fuels, and then decide either to push forwards with synthetic, or actually to fight hard against it, because they dont want a competitor to have an advantage.
Securing a viable supply chain is vital. I do wonder what the ICE manufacturers are doing in that space, because there wouldn't be much point making an ICE car, if there wasn't enough fuel to run it.
Will they all of a sudden make drastic changes to their strategy at this point? With so much money on the line? Maybe they'll be thinking which of them (they or their competitors) are more advanced in synthetic fuels, and then decide either to push forwards with synthetic, or actually to fight hard against it, because they dont want a competitor to have an advantage.
Securing a viable supply chain is vital. I do wonder what the ICE manufacturers are doing in that space, because there wouldn't be much point making an ICE car, if there wasn't enough fuel to run it.
Just what kind of volume of this synthetic stuff do you think is possible?
The U.K. burns 55bn litres of real fuel a year alone. EV sales haven't yet made any significant inroads into that volume and eFuels won't ever even be noticed
Shell and BP both own two of the largest charger companies in the U.K. and across the EU, have optioned up the big car park landlords and done deals with the energy firms on the utility side. But no one is rushing as it'll be decades before EVs have a significant impact and synthetic fuels are of zero volume relevance so the involvement from the oil companies is just PR and you can expect tonnes of that going forward. Lots and lots of adverts and promotions about how everything they do is great.
Just relax, join the smart people and enjoy burning real petrol for the next twenty years+ if that's what you enjoy.
What this article really boils down to is they will be making R badges EVs but also keep selling ICE with R badges for as long as they are legally allowed and for as long as customers will buy them.
All of this we already knew as it's rather obviously common sense but we will start to see more of this PR pivot from banging on and on and on about EVs while selling pretty much only ICE to making noises about how they still sell ICE because the consumer pivot due to cost of living is permanent.
After all the US get a manual in it.
Does VW not wonder that one of the reasons the Mk 7/7.5 was so popular, because it came with a manual.
And now they’ve dropped the Up GTi.
What is it about VW dropping the properly fun cars?
Most 'young'uns' on the dedicated forums/FB pages look for DSG versions when asking what's for sale. It just seems to be the way these days.
I'll just hang onto mine as long as I can.
What this article really boils down to is they will be making R badges EVs but also keep selling ICE with R badges for as long as they are legally allowed and for as long as customers will buy them.
All of this we already knew as it's rather obviously common sense but we will start to see more of this PR pivot from banging on and on and on about EVs while selling pretty much only ICE to making noises about how they still sell ICE because the consumer pivot due to cost of living is permanent.
The £40k bit is a red herring as the relevant price is the monthly. So using the monthly figure you're going to have a customer split between those with driveways and access to BIK v those with no BIK advantage and no driveway. The VW brand tends to more target the latter as the Audi badge is more for the former? There's going to be a reasonable split between the two either way.
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