Diess Promises Up! GTI in Europe

The Volkswagen Golf is, frankly, enormous. Sure, they call it a compact, but over the years it, and the whole segment, have grown to mammoth proportions. That’s why I get wistful every time I see the Up! Sure, it’s got a stupid name, but it’s genuinely small and light and, having had the opportunity to drive I can also say, a joy to drive.

That’s why it’s always exciting to see news about the Up! GTI. Sure, it’s been talked about and planned for and rumored for almost as long as a new Transporter, but the notion of a car of about the same weight with about the same power as the Mk1 GTI in that adorable little shape never fails to get me all atwitter.

Well, now there’s more hope for the project as Volkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, last week said that the GTI was coming.

Asked about the fate of the supermini, whose sales have been slowing down lately, Diess revealed that the performance Up! was on its way.

“It was just refreshed last year with new, turbocharged engines and we can announce that we will be bringing an Up GTI to add more emotional appeal,” reports Automotive News.

He also revealed that the company was thinking, unsurprisingly, of improving the e-Up!’s (e-Up’s!?) range.

So you Europhiles out there can at least rest easy that there will still be some cool models that we don’t get here after the Scirocco dies… oh. I just made myself sad.

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